Of Time and Saints
by Temporal Knight
Summary: When Harry died he expected to meet his family not the Patron Saint of France. Thanks to a bit of meddling on her part the two are sent back to stop Voldemort's destruction of the world. Of course, this being Harry, something is bound to go wrong...like how his mother is suddenly alive or how friends are enemies and enemies are friends...
1. Chapter 1: Winning the Battle, Losing th

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese. If I owned anything related to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I would probably have an unhealthy fascination with towels.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** So yeah, my normal beta RhysThornbery successfully convinced me to start a new fic. This originated as an altered take on the Reptilia28 challenge of Harry being sent back in time by the Reapers when he died one times too many. I felt that was a bit too cliché and used however so I adjusted it and adjusted it and eventually we wound up with this! Yes, this is going to be a somewhat large AU. Yes, Harry is still the main character. Yes, Jeanne is also a main character. Jeanne is loosely based around a combination of her historical figure and Fate/Grand Order (I have not read Fate/Apocrypha nor seen the anime yet so I have no idea what her character is like there). That doesn't mean this is a crossover; it remains firmly and solely a Harry Potter verse story with zero F/SN elements.

Note on Pairings: This is an H/Hr fic. Other pairings will include Fleur/Aster, Neville/Daphne and probably Tonks/Jeanne among some more spoilery ones. There will be femslash so if that doesn't float your boat don't say I didn't warn you. Jeanne is _highly unlikely_ to be paired with Harry.

 **CO AN:** Rhys' Ramblings: Hi, Rhys here. Really happy to be working on this with T-Knight. We're hopeful you'll enjoy it! It sorta started out as a Reptilia28 challenge and spiraled out of control from there until we ended up with the current incarnation. On a secondary note, for those of you wondering about my own works...I have a lot of crap going on in real life right now and hope to pick up those stories again soon. I imagine I'll update again sometime in September. Cheers and thanks for reading.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Winning the Battle, Losing the War**

"Where did we go wrong, Harry?" Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's best friend, asked in a soft resigned tone as they sat together staring up at the roiling flames in the sky above. It wouldn't be long now, Harry supposed. He gave it maybe fifteen minutes tops before the out of control Fiendfyre ran amok and descended onto Hogwarts. What was actually _left_ of Hogwarts anyway.

"I've been asking myself that for the past two years, Hermione," Harry sighed and smiling wanly at her before reaching down to squeeze her hand reassuringly. "It could've been anything. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I have to go with 'getting on that boat with Hagrid' back at my eleventh birthday."

Hermione chuckled. "Yes, well that certainly would have prevented… _this_. But then _I_ would've died via troll club to the cranium so perhaps not the _best_ example of things to change."

Harry rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Come on, 'Mione, we both know that I'm _probably_ responsible for _that_ somehow as well." He grinned at her and just laughed as she playfully punched his shoulder. "Why are you still here with me anyway? Shouldn't you leave? Luna and Neville headed off already."

Hermione's shoulders slumped and her head drooped. She cast a brief look towards the fiery maelstrom overhead before sighing softly. "They don't want to admit it, but I know better. We've lost, it's over now. There's no way we're ever going to be able to stop Voldemort's final contingency plan so why bother running anymore? If we had a year or even just a month or two I'm sure I could unravel the central scheme around Stonehenge with Bill, but as it stands…what's the point? Besides…you're not leaving this Tower this time are you?"

Harry stayed quiet for several long moments before eventually shaking his head. "Seems right. I killed Tom right down there and started all this." He said nodding to the sky before holding up a hand to cut off her expected challenge. "Don't, Hermione. I know that Voldemort is to blame. I _know_ it. But I was too slow at the start of this war. If he hadn't realized we'd been hunting his Horcruxes he never would have set this all up. Now the entire world is going to burn to a crisp because of one lunatic's inability to admit defeat. You're right. What's the point in running when it just buys us another week or two now? Might as well go down with one of the only homes that I ever really had. When Hogwarts dies, I want to die with it."

Hermione squeezed his hand harder and leaned over to kiss his cheek. As she pulled away Harry felt some of her tears brush against his skin before she laid her head on his shoulder. "I know, Harry. I understand. I wish things could have been different."

"So do I, 'Mione, so do I." Harry quieted and joined his friend in watching the seething hellfire as it roiled in the sky above them.

It didn't take much longer after that. Barely five minutes later the fire clouds twisted and turned. Harry tightened his grip on Hermione, but refused to look away. Multiple funnel clouds formed, made out of flaming beasts running over and around each other in ever widening, ever accelerating circles. As each Fiendfyre tornado approached the ground, the fire creatures surged outward burning the countryside below to char and glass. One particularly enormous cloud congealed nearly overhead and the bottommost segment twisted itself into the truly ironic image of a phoenix aimed straight at Hogwarts – straight at the Astronomy Tower where Harry was sitting. He glared up at the oncoming rush of flames and took one final breath.

"See you on the other side, Hermione, it has been my honor." Harry murmured an instant before the fire engulfed them both.

* * *

"Number 42! Number 42! Now serving number 42!" an obnoxiously cheerful voice rang out startling Harry from his reverie. Sighing he pulled himself out of the waking nightmare of his final moments. When he'd been consumed by the Fiendfyre he hadn't quite known what to expect. Well besides the brief, probably painful, sensation of burning to death. Something similar to the Kings Cross Limbo train had been at the top of his Afterlife Express list though. A doctor's waiting room complete with an old rotary style ticket machine had definitely _not_ factored in at all.

And would it kill them to let him wait with Hermione? They had _just died_ together for crying out loud! Was most of his 'next great adventure' going to be searching for where his best friend had been deposited? Scowling Harry shook his head. No, this was not remotely close to what the afterlife should be like.

"Number 42! Are you out there or did some idiot pull two tickets again?"

Harry looked down at the stub in his hands and sighed rubbing a hand wearily over his scar. "Here," he stated standing and starting to move towards the desk with the bubbly teller smiling at him. How did one remain so chipper when greeting the recently deceased? "Sorry about that."

"No worries! Name please?"

"Harry Potter. Or do you need the middle one too? I'd guess you probably do. There's got to be a lot of people with the same name coming through here right…" Harry trailed off as he saw the girl's expression freeze and the color start draining from her face. He groaned and did his level best to avoid banging his head against the nearest wall. Even in the underworld he was famous it seemed. "Look, can we just get this over with? I just want to meet my parents, my godfather and my friends."

"Harry Potter? Harry _James_ Potter?"

"Yes…" he said trailing off uncertainly.

The girl behind the counter swallowed thickly and, if possible, paled even further. If she had been alive he'd have worried she'd faint from blood loss. "Uh, you're here… _again_ …oh Jeanne is _not_ going to be happy. Excuse me for a minute, Mister Potter. You have a specific caseworker and she's more up to speed with your case. I'll uh-I'll be right back."

Harry glared at her retreating back as she started to scamper away. "Why do I need a caseworker? I'm _dead_! I just want to see the people I love again!" There was no answer except for the door slamming shut behind her. Harry huffed and turned to glare at the room behind him. A few people put down the magazines they were reading and raised their eyebrows at him. "What? You never seen somebody yell at a deity before?" he snarked to the closest woman staring at him.

The woman just shrugged in reply. "Honey, I make it my business not to piss off the folks helping me to the next plane of existence. And I don't think these personnel qualify as 'deities'. They're barely middle management at best I'd bet."

"Says the woman attempting to not annoy us," an exceedingly tired and exasperated voice said from behind Harry. Harry turned and found that the bubbly teller had returned with a friend, though the teller had taken shelter behind the partially opened door it seemed…perfect. The newcomer looked to be barely older than Harry, she was maybe nineteen…twenty tops. Her suit was well fit, but she seemed somewhat uncomfortable in it from the way she picked at the collar and her black hair was short enough to just barely brush her ears. "Harry James Potter. _Again_. I can't believe we have to do this for a _sixth_ time…Come on, let's get this party started…Again."

A distinct knot of worry manifested in Harry's stomach as the girl turned around and started walking down the nearby white-paneled corridor. He hurried after her trying to ignore the growing concern and frustration knotting his insides. Things could never be _normal_ for him could they? Even when _dead_ he was walking farther and farther away from the beaten path…

Pushing open an office door the girl waved Harry in and dropped into a seat behind the desk before laying her head onto the table with a groan. Harry could only stare while the knot inside him grew larger. He _hated_ seeing women cry and this 'caseworker' seemed to be coming perilously close to that point. "Do you know how long I've been assigned here, Harry?" The suited girl murmured into the desk. "I died May 30, 1431. I've been in this department for about three quarters of that time; about 420 years now. Started out sorting paperclips in Accounting…You were actually my _first_ 'problem' case with legitimate issues. I thought I screwed it up royally when you showed back up again just a few months after your initial stopover. And then again, and again, and _again_ …by the time you were here for the fifth time I realized it probably wasn't that _I_ was bad at this job, it was more likely that _you_ just enjoy _dying_."

"Hey! What the hell lady! I don't even know your name and you're sitting there accusing me of getting off to getting myself killed?!" Harry snapped. He continued scowling despite the girl sitting up with a grimace and holding out her hands in supplication.

"Sorry, sorry, you're right, that was uncalled for," she said tiredly shaking her head. "You should try and see this from my perspective though, Harry. I've been around the block more than a few times with you. Most of us only have to deal with a repeat client once or twice at most. There are some rumors that Da Vinci had three visits here and the guy stuck with Rasputin's file is _still_ waiting for him to kick the bucket, but you're…a special case. My name is Jeanne d'Arc, and I'm your assigned Reaper."

Harry blinked repeatedly and reached a hand up to try and clear out his ears. He must have heard her wrong. "Sorry, could you repeat that. It sounded like you said Jeanne d'Arc."

Jeanne shut her eyes and leaned back into her seat. "I did."

"Jeanne d'Arc."

"Yes," she agreed shortly.

"As in _Joan of Arc_? As in the bloody hero of France?! Joan of Arc the Patron Saint of France and soldiers?" Harry was not proud of the high octave his voice had traveled into, but there wasn't much helping it.

"Correct. And I'm not a hero. I was a stupid little girl who got into things _way_ over her head and pissed off the wrong people before being burned alive as a witch ironically enough, though the men's clothes was the bigger deal to them since _that_ they could actually make stick."

"You—you're—that's—What the _bloody_ hell are you doing _here_ talking to _me_?!"

Jeanne chuckled tiredly. "I never get tired of hearing you stuttering like that I have to say. To answer your question though, I'm here, helping you, because I wanted to help people in general even after everything that happened to me." Her face fell and she sighed, rubbing her hand over her left arm. "Not that there is much actual _help_ being done in this department. This job isn't what they sold it as. Trying to walk people through how screwed up their lives were and how there's not much we can do about it gets pretty depressing after a while. I _had_ wanted to be a Guardian, but apparently I wasn't qualified at the time. Now that I am, I'm stuck here for another twenty years or so. Even if I wasn't though I wouldn't be leaving this job until you _finally_ get a decent lifetime for a change!"

Harry frowned and rubbed his scar. This was…not remotely approaching anything that could be described as rational. It wasn't even close to making sense to him. He had been killed by Fiendfyre raining from the sky on a dying world and now he was chatting with Joan of _Freaking_ Arc about how she hated her job and was personally invested in seeing him succeed at his – wait…

"How can I have a 'decent lifetime'," Harry asked slowly narrowing his gaze. "I'm dead…aren't I?"

Jeanne's face lit up and she laughed, shrugging amiably. "Yes. And no. It's a bit more complicated than that actually. Let's start at the beginning, yeah?"

"Sure…" Harry nodded uncertainly. It looked like he wasn't going to be seeing Hermione or Sirius or his parents anytime soon, but…there was a niggling feeling that he might be about to receive a better option in a minute or two here.

"Cool," Jeanne said smiling. She reached for a folder on the side of the desk and flipped it open. "Okay, so for starters you've died six times now. The first was when you were ten. Do you remember the incident near the park when you tried to run away from your Uncle and nearly ran in front of a car?"

Harry cast his memory back and eventually hit on something that might be what Jeanne was talking about. "Err, Uncle Vernon had threatened to use the fireplace poker and I was running towards an ice cream truck to try and get somebody's help but…I…switched directions and ran the other way…some lorry cut across in front of the ice cream truck afterwards I think…"

"Yes. That lorry would've hit you had you kept going towards the people. A beating was a far less horrible outcome than a broken neck," Jeanne said grimacing. "I'm sorry about that by the way. I hated convincing you to let that awful man catch you, but there really wasn't any other option at the time…

Harry felt a flash of irritation wash over him but the dejected expression on her face washed it away quickly. "It's in the past I guess. Moving on?"

Jeanne nodded and flipped a page. "After that it was in your first year at Hogwarts. Initially when fighting the troll you apparently tried to levitate Hermione Granger out of the bathroom. It didn't end well. We reset her too at that point. Almost backfired even worse on the poor girl. She half remembered the first fight and froze up completely when the troll lumbered into the bathroom again. You know that saying, 'life flashing in front of your eyes?' Yeah, that."

Harry grimaced. That 'fight' had been frightening enough as it was. To think that he and Hermione had actually died during it was…not that surprising really. "Well thanks, I guess. What was the third?"

Jeanne flipped another page and quickly turned the paper over casting her gaze resolutely over his shoulder and refusing to look down. "You tried to talk to the dragon with Parseltongue in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. It…got annoyed with you for your audacity to speak to it 'in the low tongue'. That was…messy. Very messy. You really don't want to see the pictures for that one."

Harry gulped and nodded. "The thought had crossed my mind to try it…I guess you talked me out of it then. Okay, moving on!"

"Overdosed on love potion during your sixth year."

Harry gaped at the girl for a minute before laughing so hard he nearly fell off the chair.

"It's not funny! Those two girls were insane! What kind of psycho bitch has to drug a boy into liking her?!" Jeanne said scowling at him and the papers in front of her.

"Considering how my fifth year went," Harry got out around his giggles, "I am flat out amazed I didn't die at all during that year, and instead I died from laced chocolates from _Romilda Vane_ of all people!"

"It wasn't the chocolate, it was the pumpkin juice!" Harry abruptly stopped his giggling and picked himself back up as he cocked his head at Jeanne and looked down to try and read her notes. "You ate the drugged candy yes. Dose of amortentia number one. When Ginevra Weasley saw how you were acting she got to you before Hermione did and tried to fix it by dropping a larger dose keyed to her into your pumpkin juice. Both together sent your system into shock. Pomfrey was able to revive you, but the immediate withdrawal symptoms coupled with being uncertain which girl you were supposed to love more was too much for your heart. It err – may have exploded in your chest."

Harry could only gape for several seconds. He tried to form words, but after several failed attempts, merely sat back into his seat and groaned wiping a hand over his eyes. "Yeah," Jeanne sighed. "I'm sorry. If it helps you're taking it much better this time than the last go round. Ginevra isn't a _bad_ girl per se…She's just a bit unhinged after the possession. You really should try to get her to a Mind Healer this time, Harry. Bypass Molly Weasley; the woman is a menace, both to others and to her own children."

Harry nodded and waved one hand for her to go on while leaving his other firmly clapped over his eyes. Jeanne audibly swallowed and Harry's heart plummeted. That wasn't a good sign. "You're not going to like this one either…"

"Rip the plaster off, please," Harry said grimacing and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Ronald Weasley killed you the night you destroyed the Locket Horcrux."

Harry sucked in a breath between his teeth and hissed. His arms fell to his side and he _glared_ at the papers in the Jeanne's folder. " _What!?_ "

Jeanne just nodded. "He pulled you out of the lake, you opened the locket and it taunted him. The first time, you never actually refuted the locket's assertions that you had feelings for Hermione Granger. Ronald…did not take it so well. Instead of stabbing the locket he stabbed you…repeatedly…Then he felt bad and stabbed the locket afterwards, but…"

"Basilisk venom in the blade…What the _bloody fuck_!? My _best mate_ _killed_ me?!"

"Well considering he never told you about the dragons to begin with during the Tournament I really don't understand how you can keep proclaiming the little jealous moron as your best mate," Jeanne scoffed.

"He _what_?! He _knew_?! I'm going to kill him. I'm going to find his little corner of the Afterlife and I'm going to kill him…again! I don't know how just yet, but I'm going to do it!" That dragon had almost killed him! Hell, it apparently _had_ killed him once!

"Told you you weren't going to like it," Jeanne said sighing. She flipped to the last page and rubbed her arm again. "And now we're up to the Fiendfyre trap."

"Contingency," Harry corrected with a growl still thinking of all the fun ways he could show Ron his displeasure. "It was a contingency and a failsafe, not a trap. Hermione was very clear about that."

"To-may-to, to-mah-to." Jeanne waved a hand in the air and shook her head. "The point is, Riddle never should have been able to set it up. You were supposed to finish him off before he got spooked about you hunting Horcruxes and set his final temper tantrum to standby. This is actually the worst death. The others just threw Britain into the Dark Ages for a century or two. This one kind of ended up dooming the entire world. So there's that…It's a bit of an accomplishment actually. Generally very few people can point to a specific action – or lack of action – on their part that leads to the apocalypse. Not that I recommend world obliterating destruction, I'm just saying, it's bizarrely impressive."

"Yes, _thank you_ for the compliment on _ending_ the bloody _world_!" Harry took several deep breaths and tried to control his breathing. Finally after several minutes he was calm enough to continue with a question. "So are you, what was it called, 'resetting' me again?"

Jeanne sighed and shook her head. "Things are more complicated this time so unfortunately it's a bit over my head now. Basically, you've hit your limit. We're humans not cats – we don't get 'nine lives'. Seven is the most we stretch it to and that's just because it's magically powerful."

Harry relaxed his hands releasing his fingers from the fists they'd curled up into when Jeanne had mentioned a potential problem. "So what does that mean?"

"It means I get to go to management with you and we can try to convince them that you need to remember the entirety of our conversation this time instead of a just a vague feeling," Jeanne said. Despite the confidence in her tone Harry was distinctly aware of the nervous way she started fingering her shirt collar again. He tended to have the same nervous ticks when he was putting on a show of confidence for his friends. That…didn't bode well.

"Before we go there, can you tell me how to stop Voldemort's failsafe at Stonehenge? Is there a trick to cracking through the barriers? We couldn't get to them with the ley lines feeding them all the energy they needed."

Jeanne shrugged and nodded. "Trick's simple: don't let it get set up." Harry rolled his eyes before Jeanne smiled at him and shook her head slowly. "Unfortunately that's really the only option, Harry. Either dismantle the runic shields before they are activated or kill Voldemort before he forms the circle. Once everything is started you'd need a large asteroid in order to crack through those shields. Yes, I know you tried that. You didn't go big enough. Tom Riddle may be insane and despicable, but one can't deny he's brilliant at times."

Harry sighed and nodded. That was pretty much what Hermione had said too. It was a large part of why the two of them had stopped struggling at the end. "Anything else I should know?"

Jeanne tapped her fingers on the desk and flipped a few pages. "Hmm, hit the review…skated over the changes recommended…not worried about the destiny talk since it's pretty obvious…soul mate joins in so Granger is rolled up too…"

"Wait, what?" Harry interjected latching onto Jeanne's muttering. "Soul mate? Jeanne what are you – "

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Jeanne cried slamming a hand down onto the page and looking up with a grin. "Since this is your last life and the nature of the reset required I can stretch the rules a bit! You don't have to go back into your seventh year during your 'field trip', I can get you as far back as the Quidditch Cup in Fourth Year! That should be enough time to take out the Horcruxes before you even have to go back to school! With a bit of luck you might even be able to avoid the Tournament all together!"

Harry blinked stupidly at his caseworker's exceedingly pleased expression and ecstatic grin. For a moment he almost thought that Jeanne was going back instead of him…He frowned as he thought that over. Was it _normal_ for these…Reapers…to get quite so involved and stretch things left and right? Was it just him? Or…was it _her_?

"Okay, let's go find Solomon. He's the Manager for my Branch and we need his approval. It's just a signature or two on your part." She jumped up from her desk, gathered her papers and folder and swiftly moved to pull the door open rushing out into the corridor.

Harry muttered a quiet curse and ran to follow along in her wake. "I think I had another question. Jeanne, can you slow down please!"

"Solomon!" Jeanne yelled skidding to a stop and banging on the front of a door with a Star of David symbol on it. Harry pulled up behind her and glared at her back though any heat was lost as he rolled his eyes at the woman. It was a shame they were meeting like this. She seemed nicer than half the people he knew from Hogwarts at least. It was almost like dealing with an unholy child of Luna and Hermione…"Solomon, open up! I need your signature for – Harry Potter. Hi! So I just need you to sign here and here…" Jeanne said flashing a bright smile as the door opened and a large man with a beard rivaling Hagrid's glanced down at her and her proffered folder.

Harry stood awkwardly behind Jeanne as Solomon looked from the paper to Harry and raised an eyebrow. Harry gave a sort of half wave and suppressed a groan. Jeanne definitely did not have explicit permission for this.

"Mr. Potter, welcome back. Unfortunately. Jeanne…" Solomon sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jeanne, what are you trying to do this time? Isn't it enough that you convinced me to give him the seven lives instead of just letting him die to begin with like he was supposed to?"

" _Supposed_ to?!" Harry squawked. The knot in his stomach returned with a vengeance and he looked at Jeanne who was cringing back from Solomon with a large grimace. Harry caught her shoot a brief glance in his direction before she turned her attention back to Solomon.

"It's just a reset for his last life, Sir."

"If it was _just_ a reset you wouldn't need my authorization," Solomon sighed and stood aside waving them both into his office. Harry carefully sat down at the offered seat and practiced breathing deeply and keeping his mouth shut. It seemed the most likely way to get him through this meeting.

"Sir, I swear, this is just a reset and a tagalong. Nothing major," Jeanne stated folding her hands in her lap as Solomon opened the folder she'd carried in.

The big man snorted as he scanned the page. " 'Nothing major.' I distinctly remember you saying that exact same thing while arguing to 'give him a fighting chance, Sir. It stays within Fate's decree, Sir.' Now we're dealing with a burning planet when all we previously had was a simple hard to kill dictator. In case you were wondering, that counts as 'major' in my book, Jeanne."

Jeanne fiddled with her collar again and mumbled something unintelligible. Harry however threw away his previous determination to stay silent less than a minute after making it. "That's hardly fair to her! How was she supposed to know that Voldemort would throw a temper tantrum at losing and literally burn the planet to ashes on his way out the door?" he growled. Glaring at Solomon, Harry crossed his arms and tried to puff up his chest. This woman had apparently argued for saving the life of a stupid 10 year old who got himself run over by a lorry. The _least_ he could do was try to argue for her as well.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle has warnings all over his file, Mr. Potter," Solomon said raising an eyebrow. "We make it a rule not to mess with those types or ones closely related to them. Especially when the Fates are involved. Those women make very little sense in their weavings and I've learned it's easier to just let things be. Jeanne has been here long enough that she should know that as well."

"He was a kid! Their weave only said the two had to fight. It never said anything about Tom Riddle possessing the driver of a lorry and accidentally running the kid down without even _realizing_ it! I was totally justified in requesting the Seven Seal Exception. You agreed with me," Jeanne stated raising her gaze and joining Harry in his stare.

Solomon took in both of his guests and rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes I did at that, Jeanne. Alright, fine. You want a reset back far enough to deal with Riddle's destruction; you've got it. This is going to cause a bit of a reweave most likely, Mr. Potter. It's just a temporal displacement though so nothing _too_ major should change I imagine and…yes?" Solomon trailed off as he saw Harry frowning and opening his mouth to say something.

Harry however just gulped and shut his jaw again. It was a stupid idea. An insane idea. He was already apparently on thin ice just for being alive long enough to even get a Hogwarts letter. And yet…she'd fought for him. "Could you get Jeanne to come with me? As my…err…Guardian? Yeah, as my Guardian." Harry fell quiet as he took in the stunned gaze of his caseworker and the rapidly blinking stare from Solomon. The papers in the big man's hands slipped through his fingers onto the desk and nobody seemed to care. The silence stretched on and Harry gulped again as he reached up to run a hand through his hair. "I seem to keep screwing this up. I could use a guide you know? Last life? Dying world? Help would be appreciated? Jeanne knows my life better than I do; she'd be a great Guardian for me!"

Solomon finally seemed to regain his train of thought and started laughing as he shook his head hard enough that his beard started to wag. "Oh I see why you like this one, Jeanne! Mr. Potter, do you have any idea what a Guardian actually _is_?"

"Err…No?"

"Harry, sit down and _shut up_!" Jeanne hissed reaching over to grab his shirt sleeve and attempt to haul him back into his seat.

"A Guardian, Mr. Potter, is a spirit sent to walk in the shadows of someone's life. They intervene every once in awhile under exceptional circumstances in attempts to prevent untimely deaths. They _cannot_ communicate with their charges. Even if I could bend the rules enough to allow her to speak with you it would be pointless. As a Guardian Jeanne would not be of any use; you can't be revived any further and we cannot take active steps in your final life to prevent potential death. So you see, an assigned Guardian is quite pointless in your case."

"Oh…" Harry deflated. It had been a long shot anyway, but it had been worth a try. He lifted his head to meet Jeanne's gaze though both of them froze as Solomon continued.

"However…I could perhaps…oh now you've both got _me_ doing it! Looking for ways around the rules…" The large man chuckled at himself and reached into his desk pulling out a bright gold form that nearly shimmered as the light played on it. "Jeanne d'Arc, do you truly wish to help this young man finish things off?"

"…Yes…" Jeanne said slowly her eyes never leaving the paper. "What is that? I've never seen that type of paperwork before…"

"Harry Potter, do you truly wish for this young woman to assist you in your final endeavor?"

Harry nodded and felt the knot in his stomach unravel slightly. "I do. She's done more for me than anyone except my parents and Hermione. And I didn't even know her until like an hour ago."

Solomon smiled wider and nodded. He gently set the form down in front of the both of them and pointed to the bottom. "Jeanne d'Arc, this is a re-embodiment form. With a signature here you are allowed one lifetime as a mortal again. You can keep your memories of your time among us and upon your return you will be again offered the choice of employment or Elysium. With this you will be able to assist Mr. Potter in his endeavors without restriction."

"I…Mary Mother of God…" Jeanne whispered reaching out a tentative hand to touch the gold paper. Harry was just as stunned though his face split into a grin. Potter luck apparently won out for the plus side every once in awhile! "Won't this cause a much larger reweave though?"

"Most assuredly. I can't even begin to guess how much would change due to it. I would say it would likely be at least two or three large-scale items. _However_ those two or three changes could occur from anywhere between five minutes prior to reset, to all the way back to your new time of birth in the re-embodiment; meaning approximately 4 years before Mr. Potter's birth. The changes could of course 'snowball' as the phrase goes." Solomon leaned back and clasped his arms over his chest eyeing both of them though the grin remained in place. "Think carefully before you agree to this."

Jeanne frowned and started to pull her hand back as she glanced over to Harry. "Harry, thanks for trying, but that is too big of a risk to – "

Harry shook his head and cut her off almost immediately. "So things'll change, so what. I'll deal with it like I've dealt with everything else. You've _literally_ given me a whole bloody life, Jeanne. _Six_ of them. Sign the stupid papers and let's go."

"I…this is…How the heck did we get to _this_?!" Jeanne whispered looking back to the form in front of her.

Solomon chuckled again and handed over a pen. "I warned you not to get too involved with your cases back when I recruited you, sweetheart. This is what happens when you care too much. Same rules apply: no resets for either of you, be prepared for the reweave, ensure the planet survives this time. Have fun!"

* * *

AN: I like to think I'm getting more used to British terms but 'plaster' in place of 'Band-Aid' is just…weird. It's my American shining through…

Fic Recommendation: "Wish Carefully" by Ten Toes. This story is narrated by Lucius Malfoy and is a bit different from the norm. Basically after Dumbledore died Harry signed a binding contract agreeing to leave England along with all of the Light personnel in exchange for the Dark not touching Muggles and giving all of their Muggleborn and squibs to the Light once a year. It turns out that the Dark did _NOT_ think through the consequences of getting what they wanted…This is a very good, longer oneshot.


	2. Chapter 2: Tangled Threads

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** In this chapter we get our first look at just how much has changed. If anyone was expecting an easy two-step defeat of Voldemort, hopefully this allays those fears. Also, if you catch the reference to one of my favorite movies in this chapter you get bonus points! There are several points here that may remind you of one of kathryn518's fics, 'I'm Still Here'. This wasn't intentional and I actually started writing the majority of this chapter before I had reread her story and realized the similarities. Anyway, I have contacted her and she's cool with it. Things are going to go in a remarkably different direction than her story so have no fear about that!

 **CO AN:** Hey everybody. Rhys Here! We've been having a lot of fun writing this story so far, so I really hope you enjoy this chapter. I particularly enjoyed fleshing out the differences in known characters. Just a quick couple of side notes in regards to my own stuff. I intend to update at least one of my stories in the coming month. Also if any of you know Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit well maybe drop me a line?"

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Tangled Threads**

As the wind whipping past his head died down and the rainbow hue surrounding him vanished Harry hit the ground, his knees gave out and he tumbled forward striking his elbow and shins on a rock. He groaned as he rolled over before tenderly pushing himself back to his feet. "Why does _every_ form of magical transit hate me? Oww…you'd think that the agents of death could at least give us something that doesn't hurt so much on arrival."

Jeanne just raised her eyebrows and covered her mouth as she chuckled at his grumbling. _She'd_ had no issues remaining on her feet it seemed. "You're just cursed, Harry. I used to think you actually made a game of it and played it up, but I've learned better. You _must_ be cursed."

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up," Harry groused, rolling his eyes. He dusted off his trousers and glanced down at his hands. They were much…softer than he had become accustomed to. Frowning, Harry ran a quick scan of the rest of his body and noted that quite a few scars and burns were missing. In fact he seemed to be down to just the remnants of his treatment by the Dursleys, the basilisk fang mark and, of course, his lightning bolt. "Huh, well that's a nice side effect. I guess I don't have to worry about the bum leg anymore."

Jeanne shrugged and picked a piece of dirt off of his shoulder he'd missed. "You didn't expect to show up in 1994 looking 20 did you?" Harry had the grace to smile sheepishly at her, though his grin dropped as he noticed Jeanne frowning and looking into the distance. "Actually…you shouldn't be here with me at all…"

Harry rubbed his scar and tried to affect a mild glare though there was little actual heat in the expression. "Did you forget so quickly that I practically begged for you to come back and help me?" Jeanne just grimaced and reached over to poke his shoulder pointedly. "Hey! What gives?"

"You _should_ be in your own body," she shook her head as he moved to speak. "No, I mean your body _here_ , in the reset. I got a new one because my original body was burned to ashes and scattered in a river, not to mention being several hundred years removed from the present. Yours should be perfectly fine…Your consciousness and soul should've merged with the body here…"

Harry sighed and threw up his hands in defeat turning towards the main camp surrounding the Quidditch World Cup just a short distance away. "Great, I'm different _yet again_. There's not going to be two of me running around is there?"

Jeanne snorted and shot him a grin as she moved to join his walk. "Even the Fates aren't that extreme…I think. I guess it's possible that this situation is so weird they just moved you to meet up with me?"

"Sounds about as plausible as anything else," Harry sighed. "They changed your hair after all." He waved towards the flowing blonde waves that hung down to the middle of her back which were _markedly_ different from the short-cropped black hair she'd sported previously.

"What?" Jeanne exclaimed as she whipped her head about only to _squeak_ at her new hair style. The shock was almost instantly replaced by a snarl. "Oh I am going to _kill_ him…Solomon recently discovered a Japanese game that has me as a character. Very historically inaccurate. She has hair like this. He teased me about it _constantly_. This is changing back as soon as we sit down!" she growled. "Next time I see that man…"

She fell quiet and they walked in silence for several minutes before Jeanne reached over and squeezed his shoulder affectionately. "Thanks, Harry. I…never expected you to stick your neck out for me like that."

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "It's what I do. Hermione says I have a 'saving people thing'. She's not wrong. You said you hated your job, that you wanted to help and you've basically cheated whatever deity runs things to give me a _chance_ at a life. _Seven_ chances. That deserves a bit of a leap of faith."

"Still, thanks."

Harry nodded and a minute later they finally made it into the camp proper. From the shouts, laughter and partying going on around them it was pretty obvious that the game had already finished. Harry smiled as he saw a magical picture thrown up on a poster board with Krum catching the Snitch and a caption below reading _ **Krum: The only player to score for Bulgaria!**_ "Guess they missed the one goal they made in my original timeline. You think that's one of the changes, Jeanne?"

His companion laughed and clapped him on the back. "No way are we that lucky, Harry. Do you _know_ what kind of luck you have? You died six times and only twice were from Voldemort! I'll eat my shirt if Bulgaria missing a goal is the biggest thing we have to worry about!"

"Be careful with that threat," Harry said rolling his eyes. "Some of my friends may have taken you up on it."

Jeanne snickered. "And it would've given them a coronary. Don't expect me to be nice to Ronald by the way. You may be like the little brother I never had, but I am under no obligation to play nice to that cretin."

Harry grimaced and shook his head. "Yeah, don't worry. He stabbed me. He doesn't get a free pass. I'll see how the Tournament goes. If I get drawn into the stupid thing again and he abandons me like before that's it, he's cut off and out of my life forever. Hell, he's cut out anyway. Not tell me that I'm going to face a _bloody dragon_ … _git_ …"

"Sounds good to me."

"Jeanne, before we went to talk to Solomon you were saying something about soul mates?"

Jeanne shrugged. "It's nothing complicated; just complimentary souls. A square peg for a square hole kind of deal. Most soul mates end up being lovers, some business partners, others just good friends. It's not even something we control. We just track the records. Your own government does so too. France is better at it though," she said grinning and lightly punching his shoulder.

Harry snorted and raised his eyebrows at her. "Why do I get the feeling that France is going to be 'better' at quite a lot of things?"

"Because France is awesome and we excel at everything," Jeanne stated lifting her head pompously and affecting what Harry liked to call the 'arrogant arse pureblood air'.

"Hahaha, very funny," he deadpanned. "Wasn't it the French who burned you at the stake?"

Jeanne cracked up and did a brief twirl as her arrogant façade fell to pieces with her laughter. "Sorry, couldn't resist. And yes, but they were doing it at the backing of the English so really I _could_ hate you _both_ , but I try not to hold grudges over hundreds of years," she commented with a wink. "We're getting close to the Weasley tents right? I think it was right over – " She cut off abruptly as the screams of revelry quickly shifted to screams of terror and spellfire shot over the tents just a short ways back. Jeanne and Harry both immediately twisted and took cover behind a large box to the side of the main aisle. "Well, I guess we haven't missed the Death Eater party," she noted dryly.

"I am _not_ running away this time," Harry growled. He was pleased to find that his wand was still in its holster on his wrist and flew into his hand as he flexed. The tip glowed briefly and Harry's body was flushed with the remembered warmth of the wand. "Jeanne stay down, I'll be back once I help chase these bastards off."

Jeanne glared at him and made a show of flicking her wrist. He blinked in surprise at the wand held in her hand afterwards. " _Some_ of the charges against me _were_ accurate. I am still a witch and I was a general at one point thank you very much. If you think I'm sitting here while you go and risk dying you're insane."

"Do you remember any spells?" Harry asked running a critical gaze over her crouched form. If she could fight, he wasn't going to turn her away. Almost nobody actually stood up to the Death Eaters here last time and one against a dozen wasn't favorable odds at all.

"The basics, yes. A decent cutting curse, blasting curse, piercing curse and banishing curse are really all I need right now," Jeanne nodded. "My basic education is a lot more primal than yours anyway. We didn't exactly have many formal schools at the time."

"Okay, that'll have to do I guess," Harry said turning back to the aisle and catching a glimpse of the black cloaks coming closer with the unfortunate Muggle family floating above them. The cackling laughter of the Death Eaters set his blood boiling. "I'll take the ones in front. You knock out the idiot holding the family up and then get them out."

"I can do that."

"On three. One. Two. _Three_!" Harry leaped out from behind the box to the left while Jeanne went to the right. Both yelled out spells, Harry sending a chain of bludgeoning hexes into the Death Eaters' midst while Jeanne launched a piercing curse that speared the one levitating the Muggle family right in his shoulder.

As the unfortunate Death Eater spun about from the force of the blow he lost his hold on the spell and the family started to fall. Jeanne wasted no time and immediately summoned all four Muggles towards her before banishing them into a cushioning charm next to the nearby tent. By the time she had turned around Harry was already holding a shield up against a rain of incoming spells from the Death Eaters. Most spells bounced off of his _Protego_ …until a bright red curse lanced through it narrowing missing him. Cursing Jeanne jumped forward and knocked him to the ground rolling them both behind cover as a sick green light passed through the space they'd been standing.

"Unforgivables, you idiot! Did you forget everything while fighting the Fiendfyre bursts?!" she shouted.

Harry scowled and got his feet under him as he rose into a crouch and raised a rock wall ahead of them. "I saw Bellatrix. She's not even masked. What the _bloody hell_ is _Bellatrix Lestrange_ doing free already!"

"Things change with major reweaves, Harry! Focus on the fight first and we'll deal with the changes later!"

Harry nodded. "I got three of them and two already Portkeyed away. There's seven left."

"Two generals against six chaff and another general aren't _too_ bad odds actually," Jeanne said risking a quick glance around the rock. She swiftly pulled her head back behind cover as a spell impact next to her. "Three on the left, four on the right."

Harry nodded and jumped up. " _Bombarda_ , _confrigo_ , _sectumsempra_!" He dropped back down as a second _crucio_ and Killing Curse soared overhead. "Three on the right, two on the left. I think most of them besides Bellatrix are completely pissed drunk. There's no way I should've hit them both with that."

"We need to move. Tent to the left, we cut through and circle around," Jeanne stated gesturing towards the tent as more of their barrier crumbled away under renewed salvos of spells.

Harry nodded and both ran for the tent. They had just crossed into the threshold when the last bit of their rock wall was blown to bits. Harry sent a cutting curse into the fabric of the back wall of the tent and they burst forth. Both Harry and Jeanne sent blasting curses towards the right flank of the Death Eaters though a shield blocked the spells from doing any damage. Harry's eyes narrowed as he saw the eagle eyed gaze of the insane Black witch lock onto his own. Harry snarled wordlessly while Jeanne raised another rock barrier.

"You have spirit, boy! I would seek to recruit you, but you struck one of my dear friends with that last curse. Perhaps you'd care to give yourself up? A bit of torture to regain face for what was lost and then there would be a place for you and your skills! You're welcome to come along too girl!"

Jumping out from the side, Harry gave his answer to Bellatrix with a single shout. " _Confrigo_!" The spell crashed against Bellatrix's shield and he could see the magic flare. A moment later shouted blasting and explosion curses rang out from the opposite side of the battlefield and cracks ran through the barrier shield. Bellatrix glared over her shoulder at the newcomers. "Potter! This isn't over, the Dark Lord will rise again and your little bitch spawn won't be able to save you this time!" More spells crashed into the shield as Harry, Jeanne and whoever was helping them fight shattered the barrier. Just before it collapsed entirely all the remaining Death Eaters Portkeyed away, leaving naught but dust in their wake.

Harry took a deep breath and took a moment to calm himself letting the adrenalin bleed away. Jeanne stepped up beside him fingering her collar absentmindedly. "I was _really_ hoping we wouldn't have to deal with that woman this time…"

"You and me both," Harry muttered. He was startled out of his contemplation at a shout of surprise directly in front of him. Looking up Harry sought the source of the yell and froze solid, his mouth falling open.

" _James_?"

" _Dad_?"

* * *

Lily Potter heard the screams of panic in the distance and snapped her head up to face them. It was far, but the way the crowd of frantic revelers surged away from one area of the campground made the implications obvious enough. Haunting laughter and flashes of spells over the tents along with a curl of black smoke rising into the air cut away any possible second guessing. " _Death Eaters_ ," Lily snarled. "Not this time..." She grabbed the edge of her tent's flap and ripped it open. Leaning inside she shouted, "Aster, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, get your arses in here _RIGHT NOW_!"

There was a brief cacophony of scrambling noises before four teenagers tore into the main room of the tent. Well, three tore into it, one fell into it. Poor Neville...Lily shook her head slightly and ignored the young Gryffindor's plight as she centered her focus on her daughter. "Aster, Death Eaters are running about and inciting a panic. Get the others to the forest and stay hidden. Stay safe. I'll be along shortly. Shiva is with Sirius so don't wait for her. Go now."

"Mum, I can help!" Aster argued as her wand snapped down into her iron-clad grip.

Lily shook her head emphatically. "I know you can. That's why I trust you to take care of the others. You know that Ginny and Neville are still learning how to fight." Those two glanced to the ground and shuffled their feet. They were at least clutching their wands...though their hands shook massively.

"Mrs. Potter, I can help you as well," Hermione stated. The steel in her voice had Lily swiveling her head to stare at the bushy-haired girl. That was the voice of a fighter not a bookworm. And that stance she had adopted was balanced and measured, ready to jump in any direction at the slightest provocation.

 _Aster and Hermione certainly have been in quite a few scraps over the past few years. I didn't realize it had affected the girl as much as it had my daughter._ Lily shook her head to file away that question for later. "Thank you for the offer you two, but no. You both need to get to the forest. _NOW_!"

Hermione frowned, but nodded grudgingly. Aster simply scowled and narrowed her eyes. "You're not even waiting for backup."

Lily smiled at her daughter ruefully. The girl knew her too well sometimes. "I'll grab them en route, honey. Somebody's bound to already be fighting and I have to go help." _Not bloody likely. This is the Blood War all over again. Cowards the lot of them._ "Aster, go. Please." She held her daughter's gaze and waited for her to shut her eyes and give a single jerky nod. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. "Thank you. Go!"

The four teens ran past her and started to head towards the nearby copse of trees. Lily twisted and sighted onto the strongest gathering of smoke and spellfire and started running. The Death Eaters would not be getting away unscathed. Attack the Quidditch World Cup? For laughs? Lily snarled as she imagined the twisted mentality that these creatures possessed. She would make them _pay_.

She was close enough to see black cloaks and silver masks before she heard the pounding feet behind her. Scowling Lily risked a glance back over her shoulder and growled as she saw raven hair streaming out from the girl tailing her. Aster had circled around to follow her. _Of course_ Aster had circled around to follow her. That girl constantly seemed to run _towards_ danger…especially whenever Lily herself was involved. It was almost like Aster had decided that since the world sought to take everything else from her mother, she'd make darn certain that the world didn't take Lily as well.

It was heartwarming after a fashion. While simultaneously giving her a heart _attack_ each time. "Aster!" Lily growled as she slowed down enough for her daughter to catch up. "One of these days you need to actually listen to me!"

"And _you_ need to stop trying to get revenge for Dad every time a Death Eater shows up!" Aster retorted. "Someone's fighting these bastards this time, can't you tell? Doing a good job too, judging by the explosions a moment ago. We should circle around to right side and try to flank them."

Lily scowled deeper and nodded. Aster was right of course. Lily had managed to catch a glimpse of two figures darting through a tent as a rock wall crumbled behind them. Two out of thousands wasn't necessarily impressive, but the fact that _anyone_ was bothering to stand their ground was an improvement over last time around. "Agreed. Follow me. We'll discuss your actions after we get back."

"Yes, Mum."

Lily led her daughter as they raced past burning tents searching for the best angle to reach the Death Eaters. She idly reflected on when her daughter had started down this path. Being slightly reclusive probably hadn't helped matters. Merlin knew, it certainly hadn't helped Aster to develop a large social circle. It had largely been a necessity though. Between constant threats from 'former' Death Eaters, active Death Eaters, and the bigoted purebloods who claimed that being a Mudblood made Lily unsuited to raise the Girl-Who-Lived alone...she had taken to living as far under the radar as possible. That was completely ignoring the masses of scattered Black and Potter relatives that came out of the woodwork to assault her character and try to drag custody of Aster away from her at all costs. They had thought that making her destitute would suffice. They were idiots.

Aster was smart. She'd picked up on the things that Lily had tried to hide and she'd learned to fight and to protect those she cared about. Lily hadn't even realized that the girl had been practicing until the end of her First Year when she had managed to out duel Quirinus Quirrell at eleven. Granted the man had been possessed, crippled and dying at the time, but it was still an amazing accomplishment. Between that and her actions against the basilisk Second Year and Bellatrix Lestrange last year…No Lily was not surprised that Aster had ran to help fight the Death Eaters.

Hearing Bellatrix Lestrange's taunts ring out from among the cockroaches ahead set Lily's musing thoughts flying out of her head faster than a Firebolt. Her face contorted into a snarl and she barely even noticed as her wand whipped forward, disgorging a series of short, _powerful_ curses. Her fire spell nearly singed Aster's robes when the girl circled too close to Lily though the older woman merely adjusted her swing and aim on the next strike to account. She sent a trio of bone-breaking, chest constriction and bludgeoning curses into the ailing shield. Her lips twisted into a smile of triumph as she watched the bubble begin flickering from the combined assault of her and Aster's spells plus whatever the two on the other side were sending into it.

That smile turned into the leer of a lioness as she met the eyes of Bellatrix. The crazed Black scowled and shouted something to Lily, something Lily couldn't quite hear over the sound of explosions and the rushing blood in her ears. Scowling back, Bellatrix disappeared a moment before the shield collapsed and the fighting finally ended. Lily growled at letting her quarry escape yet again though she attempted to calm herself with the knowledge that several of them had been bleeding and stumbling heavily when they portkeyed to temporary safety. Next time Lily would ensure that none made it out…

Her thoughts ground to a sudden halt as she came face to face with the young man stepping into the light across from her. Her fellow combatant set her eyes widening into ovals and her jaw dropping to an extent Tonks would be proud of. All thoughts of Death Eaters and revenge fled from her mind as a ghost from the past walked across towards her.

" _James_?"

" _Dad_?"

The young man froze completely and his eyes widened as well. Lily stepped hesitantly forward closing the gap between them. "James? How…No…you're too young and your eyes…" Lily murmured as she stepped up next to him, barely even aware of her movements. Her wand hung at her side forgotten and her other hand tentatively trembled all the while as she reached out towards his face. "Who _are_ you…?"

" _Mum_?" His voice was strangled and hoarse and a sheen momentarily crossed over his eyes – his _green_ eyes, his eyes that looked just like the ones she saw in the mirror each day. He just as slowly reached up to touch her hand and leant his head over _just_ enough for hers to rest on his cheek. "I don't…How…"

"Well…this is unexpected!" the young man's companion murmured as she flicked her waist length blonde hair behind her while walking forward taking in the three frozen individuals. "Harry, snap out of it. The Aurors are coming and obviously this is _not_ a _minor_ reweave. We need to go!"

"I – I can't…" he seemed to nearly plead, his eyes never leaving Lily's own.

"Please don't go," Lily said herself in a voice barely above a whisper. "Please…"

"Mum, get back," Aster said in a voice that was level and deceptively calm. Lily wrenched her eyes to the side and caught a brief glimpse of her daughter standing slightly to the side with her wand pointed at the young man. Aster's wand was trembling so badly Lily doubted it would hit much of anything. "He could be…a trick or…something…There were Death Eaters here…they could've…done…done _something_."

The blonde woman stepped up and reached down to take the young man's – Harry…she would have named Aster that if she'd been a boy – free hand. "Harry, I understand. Believe me, I do. But we need to go. We'll come back, Mrs. Potter. I promise. Harry, please…we need more information."

"Lily! Are you over here you crazy witch! I can't believe you ran after the Death Munchers alone! If you got yourself killed, James'll never forgive me when I finally croak!" Lily heard Sirius' shout ring out from close by. His words were vaguely amused but the strain behind the tone was evident to her. She'd known him long enough to recognize that level of concern.

"Lils!" a feminine voice joined Sirius. Bathsheda 'Shiva' Babbling's call was decidedly more frantic. It only made sense; Shiva was _of course_ going to worry whenever her partner was rushing alone into battle. She'd always berated James for doing the exact same thing when they'd been younger after all…"Lils, I swear if you are dying I am going to kick your bloody arse!"

"Harry!"

The young man shuddered and stepped back, his cheek leaving Lily's hand and he back-stepped several paces. "I'm sorry. We'll meet you at your tent. Better not hurry too much…" he stated before whipping a silvery cloak from behind his back and draping it around himself and his companion. Lily gasped as the two of them disappeared. She'd know that particular cloak anywhere…

"Mum! That's my – it's locked in my trunk at home…how…who are…" Aster whispered, her wand still shaking and pointed uncertainly into thin air.

Lily shook her head trying to breathe deep and push aside her roiling feelings for a few minutes at least. Her daughter needed her. "I don't know, honey. But we're going to find out before we let the Ministry anywhere _near_ this. We tell Sirius and Babs later on. Until then, we didn't get a good look at them. Understand?"

"Yes, Mum," Aster said nodding numbly. Lily smiled at her and reached over to slowly push the wand down to her side. Aster had just finished dropping her arm as Sirius, Shiva and several Aurors came trotting around a tent several rows up.

* * *

Shiva managed to contain her frustrations with Lily and Aster until the Auror escort had peeled off. Sirius – unsurprisingly – had easily recognized that Lily was keeping something from them, and so had left to find Tonks to turn over as many of his duties as possible. It was a reasonable plan, all things considered, that would work perfectly fine so long as he could find his cousin before his _wife_ found _him_ and demanded a debrief. Amelia Black née Bones was an intimidating woman and no one crossed her; especially not Sirius.

Shiva liked to think that she was an intimidating woman as well. She _had_ after all blown up the Ravenclaw Common Room twice, as well as four different unused classrooms, two Runes classes, and more trees and grassy sections of the Hogwarts' grounds than she could count. It was where her nickname came from after all. The fact that the Hindu deity of destruction was male rather than female seemed unimportant to her friends at the time. Shiva hadn't fought them on it because…well she rather disliked her given name and anything was better than _Bathsheda_. Honestly, Tonks had no right to complain about 'Nymphadora' compared to Shiva's official moniker.

Somehow though, Shiva's natural intimidation never seemed to have any effect on Lily J. Potter. Of course, attempting to intimidate the 'Snake's Bane' as she was now known, was generally considered to be a fruitless pursuit, but just _once_ Shiva hoped to achieve it. Just _once_! She scowled thinking of her partner. Lily Potter was many things; beautiful, caring, passionate, loving, brilliant, kind, empathetic, and frighteningly competent…but she was not very forward-thinking sometimes.

Perhaps once Lily had planned ahead, yet those days were far in the past, if they'd ever existed. Shiva was suitably impressed by Lily's runic, ritual and charms work that had kept Aster alive when Voldemort came for them, but she would put every galleon she owned on that being the sole time that Lily had planned more than five minutes into the future. Especially since James had died.

"Dammit, Lily!" Shiva hissed as the last Auror walked away and it was just the three of them trudging slowly back to the tent. "You can't keep _doing_ this!"

"And _they_ can't be allowed to roam free," Lily said. The sigh and weary tone threw Shiva for a loop momentarily. Seeing Lily sad after pursuing her little 'hobby' wasn't unusual, but that phase generally didn't start until they were home and safely ensconced behind closed doors. "There were _thousands_ of people here. _Someone_ had to do _something_."

"And yet that someone _always_ has to be you, Lils," Shiva scoffed acidly. "I agree with you completely that people have to fight them. If even one out of every hundred here had stood their ground those bastards wouldn't have made it ten feet. But we aren't talking specifics, Lily. We're speaking more generally! Every bloody time something like this happens you run _straight towards them_!"

Shiva turned her head enough to catch a glimpse of her partner's expression and wasn't satisfied at all. Lily wasn't contrite or even thoughtful. Instead her lip was twitching and her eyes were narrowed. "You don't understand, Babs. I just—I _can't_ let them run."

Aster pulled up even with Shiva and glanced back scowling at her mother. "Mum, you're not the only one who lost people in the war and yet you're the only one who _loses it_ every time you even catch a rumor of a Death Eater nearby. Not even Uncle Moody is _this_ bad!"

"Pot meet kettle," Lily shot back glaring at her daughter for an instant before the heat dropped out and she just shook her head sighing. "Look, Aster, I'm sorry, but you just don't realize what it was like with that _monster_ and his sycophants crawling up to our door in the middle of the night. The magical world is stagnant and dying. And those _things_ are a virus that is going to wipe us out permanently with their filth and hate. _We_ have to wipe _them_ out first."

"We have Azkaban for that," Aster shot back. Shiva had to suppress a groan. Aster knew better than to try that tact. Heck not even _Aster_ believed that line. All three of them would sooner kill a Death Eater than capture him alive. It was one reason why these arguments were always _so hard_. Aster and Shiva tended to agree with the majority of Lily's points…just not the reckless abandon she practiced.

Lily just laughed. Shiva frowned at the sound. It lacked the usual conviction and sounded robotic…almost as if Lily was barely even paying attention to the conversation and was just running on autopilot hitting all the usual notes. "Aster, I've warned you time and time again about the corruption that permeates everything in this world. It's just a matter of time before Azkaban leaks like the sieve it is. Even without the cages crumbling, the gold flows and the guilty don't even have to pretend to be innocent."

"Lily," Shiva said softly. She slowed down and took Lily's hand being very careful not to look towards the red-head. "You know they call you the Snake's Bane. Our entire culture knows you hunt them. Sure it scares some off, but it's predictable now. One of these days they're going to get enough together and lure you into a trap and then you'll die…just like James did."

"It won't come to that," Lily said shaking her head sharply. Shiva still refused to look towards her partner. Aster had heard this enough that she recognized the signs and started walking far enough ahead to pretend to be out of hearing range. "I'm not leaving you. Either of you."

"You will, Lils. If you can't learn to control yourself on this, you will. And when you die, it's going to be just me and Aster," Shiva squeezed Lily's hand briefly before letting go and starting to walk ever so slightly faster. "I can't raise her on my own, Lily."

"Babs…"

"You know that she follows you every time now," Shiva continued doggedly. She hated twisting the knife like this. Every bloody time it sent her stomach flipping and broke her heart more, but she kept doing it. Maybe…maybe one day, Lily would actually _listen_. "Aster and I sat down a few years back and talked about it, Lily. Did I ever tell you that? She was…ten I think. She understood even then your obsession. She understood and it scared the hell out of her. Do you know what she asked me when she got her letter from Hogwarts? She asked me if I could legally start teaching her how to fight now. If I could get her to a point that she could help you. That she could _protect_ you. She doesn't follow you because she wants to kill the men who killed her father. She follows you so that _they_ don't kill _you_."

"I know," Lily said, voice barely above a whisper. "I know…but…"

"Lily, you _have_ to stop. They're getting stronger now and Voldemort is getting closer to coming back. You know this. When he does…I know we do this every time, Lily." Shiva shut her eyes and hung her head. She felt Lily reach out to grab her shoulder, but she shrugged the contact off. "I can't keep doing this. I can't watch you try harder and harder to get yourself killed. And I won't let Aster watch it either. If Voldemort comes back and you can't pull yourself together I'm taking Aster and we're leaving."

"…What?" Lily sounded so _tired_ and so _lost_ that it almost broke Shiva's resolve.

"We already talked about it. She's going to protect you as long as she can when I'm not around. But there's only so much we can do. Lily…even Sirius has stopped running off after every Dark Wizard." Shiva blinked away tears knowing that the next attack was a low blow, but…a dozen Death Eaters with no backup…a _dozen_ , headed by _Bellatrix Lestrange_. "Sirius is thinking of his own daughter. He's putting being a father above his revenge. Why can't you put your daughter first too, Lily?"

She released Lily's hand and sped up pulling even with Aster. She leaned over and gripped the teenage in a brief, yet strong hug. Aster cast her a small, sad smile and a curt nod. Together they walked back into the tent, neither willing to look back at Lily in order to save what was left of their hearts this evening.

* * *

Neville Longbottom was _not_ having a good day. He hadn't really been having a good week, a good month or a good _year_ at that. He was tempted to expand that definition out to a 'good decade' but ended up deciding that it would include too many good times with the bad to generalize _quite_ that much. The current day though was rather topping the list of 'bad days'. This very morning he had found out that his crush was _never_ going to be interested in him. Then the team he supported – quietly, as nobody wanted an _Englishman_ supporting _Bulgaria_ against _Ireland_ – lost the World Cup. _Then_ there was the Death Eater attack. Then he'd realized that his crush had left him, Ginny and Hermione behind in order to chase after her mother and try to prevent her from doing anything stupid. Then he'd tripped in the woods and broken his father's wand. Finally after what felt like forever, Tonks had come and led them back to the tent saying the fighting was over and the Death Eaters had ran away. _Now_ he was trapped in the tent with a thoroughly disturbing Hermione Granger.

They'd been friends since the first day riding the Hogwarts Express. Neville would be the first to admit that Hermione could be downright scary at times, but this was going a bit further than usual. He frowned as he watched her pace the room yet _again_ as her wand shot out several sparks.

"Uh, Hermione," Neville said swallowing audibly at the small rut his friend was likely to run into the floor of the tent soon enough. "Tonks said that she would bring Aster back with Mrs. Potter. She'll be fine. She's _always_ fine."

Beside him Ginny snorted and rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms and leant back into the couch as a small smirk played across her lips. "Aster is _never_ 'fine' after her little escapades, Neville. Madame Pomfrey has a _plaque_ over a bed for her!"

" _Not_. _Helping_ ," Hermione growled at them pointedly. She turned again and her hand tightened further over her wand. Neville winced. He should have expected this really. After the disaster of this morning's confession, he really should have known that Hermione would probably wind up with a shorter fuse. Couple it with the attack…

"Hermione, I'm sure that Aster just didn't tell us because she was losing sight of Mrs. Potter. It probably has nothing to do with you turning down her request for a date. Aster's our friend. She wouldn't take it personally. Maybe…maybe I should be going out there after them!"

Ginny groaned and lightly slapped him on the back of the head. "Stop talking, Neville. You're making it worse. Besides your wand's broken remember?" She twisted and looked to Hermione had momentarily paused in her pacing, but had already resumed trying to destroy the magically charmed wood. "Hermione you _had_ to shoot her down. What was it you said? She didn't have the right 'parts' to keep your interest for more than an experiment and you didn't want to play with her heart like that? That's a perfectly valid reason. If you're not a witch's witch then it's better that Aster know that now and move on."

Hermione growled again. "I didn't have to break her heart while rejecting her! Now she's gone into battle and _I should be out there helping_! I had _thought_ she had understood why when I said I was not interested. I _thought_ she was _okay_. I _never_ expected her to be hurt enough not to _tell me_ she was running off to _fight Death Eaters_ …! Argh! If she gets injured I'll…I'll…" Hermione balled her hands into fists as her wand shot off enough sparks to cause serious worry about starting a small fire. Neville quickly stood and shuffled to the stove to grab a pot and fill it with water. Just in case. He wasn't going to be casting an _aguamenti_ with his snapped wand anytime soon that's for sure.

"Hermione, it's _Aster_. Aster _always_ does this when it comes to her mum," Ginny said sighing. "Besides she's never seriously hurt! She fought a bloody _basilisk_! And she's running after _Lily Potter_ , the _Snake's Bane_! She'll be _fine_."

"Didn't you just say earlier – " Neville cut off abruptly as Ginny shot him a glare and slashed a hand across her neck. Neville's eyes widened and he hurriedly switched thought trains as Hermione started her march back. "I mean, Ginny's completely right, Hermione. And besides, Sirius is going after them too and we all know how good of an Auror he is! And whatever gets past the three of them Professor Babbling will take care of. That woman is scary when she's worried about the people she cares about! I heard she blew up the NEWT Runes class by _accident_!"

Hermione scowled and continued her pacing. "I can fight! I know more spells and I have better accuracy and speed! She should have gotten me before she ran off!"

"And then _we_ would've been alone, Hermione," Ginny said softly. Hermione stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. Slowly she turned and nodded her head to the younger red-head.

"I know. I know and I'm sorry, Ginny. I don't mean to imply that you and Neville are not as important as Aster. I am simply…frustrated and worried is all. Things recently have been…they have not been good and this is just another problem I did not need."

Ginny and Neville both shot her small grins and nodded. Before anyone could say anything they were interrupted by the tent flap being pushed open and a thoroughly subdued Aster walking in with Professor Babbling close behind. "Aster, don't forget you are grounded until you move out!" Babbling said glaring at the young Potter's back. Neville had been around the household enough to hear the forced normality in Professor Babbling's voice. He winced. This fight couldn't have gone well at all. "I can't believe you ran after your mum like that! Do you have any idea how _dangerous_ that was?!"

"Shiva, it's fine," Lily Potter said softly as she walked in behind the two. "It's no worse than anything that's happened at Hogwarts and you were right; she was just coming after me. No point in flogging a dead horse about it."

"Aster!" Hermione shouted as soon as the two older witches cleared a path. She twisted on her heel as the returning trio tromped in and launched herself at her friend. Hugging the girl hard enough to elicit a grunt of amused pain, Hermione quickly let go and moved back, proceeding to run a critical eye up and down Aster. "Are you alright? You weren't hurt were you?"

"I'm fine, Hermione," Aster murmured. She blushed and glanced down at the ground. "Can you not stare at me like that? It's a bit…awkward after…you know…this morning."

Hermione sighed and nodded. "Right. Sorry. _Please_ don't run off like that again! Especially not this year!"

"Sure, okay. Look – I'm sorry. But Mum was running off again and I didn't think you'd come with me…and I knew that someone needed to stay with the others…"

Hermione sighed and shook her head reaching out to lightly squeeze her friend's shoulder. "Aster, just because I am not open to a _relationship_ with you does not mean that I won't support you the same as ever. We are friends; never forget that." Aster picked her head up and sent a small smile and nod towards Hermione.

Seeing his friends making up as best they could, Neville put on a smile of his own. It probably didn't quite reach his eyes of course, but that wasn't really super important at the moment. He could deal with healing his own heart later. At least he wouldn't have to embarrass himself by asking Aster to Hogsmeade now that he knew she was looking for a witch to go with…Besides, he had just gotten propositioned himself at Gran's last party…If pining for Aster was a lost cause maybe he should take his classmate up on her request for a date…Shaking his head, Neville forced his smile wider and pushed the thoughts of his love life to the side; his friends needed him.

"Are you sure you're okay, Aster?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Nev," she replied sending him a lopsided grin and shrugging. "Well mostly fine. There was this one…uh, _weird_ thing at the end…"

"Weird how?" Neville asked frowning. It took a lot to shake Aster. She'd been strong and unfazed by anything for almost as long as he'd known her.

Before Aster could say anything, Mrs. Potter sighed and moved over to the cooler in the corner of the small kitchen. "I need a drink. Something strong. Anyone else care for a drink? Aster?"

"Lily!" Babbling growled stepping in front of Mrs. Potter with a scowl and crossed arms. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you? Why are you offering Aster a _drink_?! What the hell happened out there?"

Mrs. Potter grimaced and reached out gently pushing Babbling to the side without meeting her eyes. "I'm not entirely certain, Shiva. Sirius should be turning things over with Tonks soon. Once he gets back here we'll…discuss things."

"Give me the cliff notes."

Neville frowned and looked to Aster who just sighed and nodded. "Like I said. Weird." She turned towards Professor Babbling and shrugged. "Shiva, I can explain a bit, but I think we should get Ginny back to her family first. The Weasleys are probably worried sick…"

Ginny rolled her eyes and stood up from the couch nodding towards the Potters and Neville. "I know a gentle dismissal when I hear one. My brothers are back by now I'm sure. I'll go hang out with Bill and the twins. Let me know if anything fun happens in the meantime. Preferably soon enough so I have enough time to grab something better than a Quidditch Jersey!"

Aster winced. "Sorry, Ginny…"

"No it's cool, I understand," she said smirking and winking. "It's a family thing. Honestly, you think _I_ tell you guys all the dirty Weasley family secrets? Just let me know if I can help and I will."

"Promise," Aster said nodding.

Ginny had barely left the tent before Shiva leaned against the counter and raised her eyebrows at Aster. Neville settled into the seat next to her while Hermione took up her other side. Mrs. Potter simply poured herself a small glass of firewhiskey and sighed as she took her own seat.

"First thing you should know is that we seriously have no idea who the bloody hell those people _were_ ," Aster said with a frown.

"Language," Hermione murmured absently.

As if summoned by the profanity, Sirius Black walked through the flap of the tent. Neville uttered a brief, silent thanks to Merlin for the near miss. Sirius was fun and he'd calmed down alot since his daughter had been born, but he was also very quick to make puns out of people using his name during conversations. The normal playfulness though was mostly gone which did throw Neville for a bit of a loop. He took a quick look around the tent before nodding to everyone present and moving to sink into the remaining seat at the bar. "Lily, Babs, do you two have anything strong to drink? Those bastards hurt quite a few people and it's a bit of a mess out there right now. No deaths on our end, thank Merlin. I'm officially not giving Sue any flak over choosing to hang out with Hannah over us. I feel bad about dumping this off on my cousin, but I got the feeling you weren't telling me something about those two that were fighting the Death Eaters first. The ones that nobody else seems to have caught a glimpse of."

Mrs. Potter scoffed and shook her head, scowling. She handed Sirius a glass of firewhiskey and settled down next to him. "Of course they didn't see those two. They were too busy _running away_. _Hundreds_ of people _running away_ from less than a _dozen_ pissed cretins!"

"Lily," Professor Babbling murmured. Mrs. Potter's face fell and she nodded slowly as she stared down into her glass.

"Bellatrix was in control of herself, Mum," Aster said softly. The response from the other teens was immediate. Neville felt his blood start to boil and he could hear his pulse in his ears. His hands clenched into fists and for a moment he was glad that he had broken his wand. Now he could get a new one and the next time Bellatrix Lestrange showed her face he could fight her with a wand that _worked_. He was too absorbed in fantasizing about how he was going to take the evil woman down to comfort Hermione when she flinched. Bellatrix had been here. She'd been _here_ and he'd _missed_ her!

"Yes, Aster, I know that Bellatrix is reason to make oneself scarce," Mrs. Potter grumbled. "But even _she_ can't stand against overwhelming odds. If one out of every hundred had the balls to fight – "

"Lily!" Professor Babbling snapped.

"I know. _I know_ …I'm _sorry_ ," Mrs. Potter sighed and shook her head. She twisted in her seat and sent several privacy spells and silencing charms around the room locking the tent down. "Okay, look, now this information doesn't leave this room; not until we have a better idea of what is going on. Neville you can't even tell your Gran."

"I understand, Mrs. Potter. I can keep a secret. Especially when it's related to Bellatrix Lestrange," he said with no hesitation at all.

"Well, it's technically not about her. Or even the Death Eaters," Aster said sighing and rubbing the scar on her forehead. "Sirius you were right, it's about those two who were fighting them."

Sirius nodded and waved for Aster to continue. She grimaced and started to fiddle with a section of the countertop before continuing. "Mum and I got there as they dodged around to the side. They were fighting. Really well too, though the boy seemed to be going more for brute force spells than anything sneaky. Overpowered cutting and blasting curses, and some kind of wide angle fire spell, essentially a ton of area of effect stuff. The woman with him didn't really seem to have much of a pattern."

Mrs. Potter shook her head and picked up the thread. "She did, but it was hard to see. She was more of an opportunist. The type of combat you see from long range fighters. She was slow, but accurate. A spell sniper more or less, if that makes sense. They hadn't fought together long though I can tell you that. Those types do best when the hammer flushes the target into the killing zone and the…man wasn't setting the Death Eaters up well for follow-up attacks."

Sirius nodded. "Okay, so partners of circumstance in all likelihood. This is something you could've just told us out there though so…What else?"

Neville frowned as both Potters grimaced and glanced at each other. Aster finally just waved for her mother to continue and she leant back into her seat. "It's…it's how they looked. I didn't recognize the girl at all, but…well the young man was…he could have practically been James' twin."

The silence that descended across the room was impressive. Neville was mildly surprised that he couldn't hear the heartbeats of the others with the way all sound seemed to suddenly drain away. Finally after several agonizing seconds Professor Babbling asked, "Can you run that by me again, please?"

"He looked a lot like the photos of my Dad, Shiva," Aster replied softly. "He was a bit shorter, but his hair was the same, his glasses were similar, his face was just the same…bloody hell, the only thing that prevents me from saying it _wasn't_ my dad was his eyes were emerald green."

"Like mine," Mrs. Potter stated so softly Neville had to strain to hear her at all. "He had _my_ eyes. James' face and _my_ eyes."

The adults both frowned at that as each tried to work through the implications. Neville himself cast out for anything that his Gran or mother might have said in the past. Anything that might have a halfway decent explanation.

"That…doesn't make sense Lils," Sirius said softly. "I _watched_ Aster being born and it sounds like you're saying she had a secret twin or something."

"Or that your husband somehow came back from the dead except magically connected directly to you or something…" Professor Babbling murmured.

Mrs. Potter shook her head. "That's not what I'm saying. Besides I _can't_ say that. We know his name and it…wasn't 'James'."

"Then what _was_ it?" Neville asked frowning.

"Harry," Aster stated shrugging. "The woman with him called him 'Harry'."

Sirius' eyes narrowed to the point that Neville had difficulty even _seeing_ his eyes. "Harry? No last name?"

"None yet," Aster said.

Sirius just shook his head and turned to Mrs. Potter. "Lily…what did you say that you were going to call Aster if she'd been a boy?"

There was dead silence again for nearly a minute before Mrs. Potter finally replied, just barely over a whisper, "Harry. Harry James Potter."

"Well this is…complicated," Professor Babbling said with a scowl. She reached over and grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey and poured herself a glass. "This does not exonerate you of our earlier discussion, Lils, but this is obviously something we need to figure out before Fudge gets wind of it."

"Agreed," Mrs. Potter said glaring at the tabletop. "That imbecile is not going to _touch_ those two. Whoever they are…"

Sirius shut his eyes and seemed to fold up in on himself as he cringed and started talking very slowly and very deliberately. "Lily…Is it possible that…is it possible that you _had_ a son and were…Obliviated?"

Mrs. Potter snarled and cut her head from side-to-side. " _No_! James and I were _very_ careful to check each other's mental defenses after Aster was born. Plus the regular health checks we did before and after going into hiding throughout the war. Neither of us were ever obliviated. If I had had another child I'd know it."

Professor Babbling turned to Sirius with a grimace. "I have to ask…is it possible that James…?"

"No," Sirius stated shaking his head. "James talked a big game, but he was never like me. He never stepped up when push came to shove; he never took the leap. The only girl he ever shared a bed with was Lily."

Mrs. Potter shot Sirius a small smile and reached over to lay a hand on Shiva's arm for a moment before pulling back and clasping her hands in front of her. "And before you ask, no it certainly didn't happen after the war to me either. There wasn't anyone else around before you came into the picture, Babs. I…scared everyone else away."

Aster snorted quietly. "You can say that again, Mum."

"Hush, you. Don't make fun of your Mum," Professor Babbling said matter-of-factly. Neville almost laughed at the familiar banter, but managed to keep it in. This was _not_ the time. "Okay, well if he's not a secret son…then we need to figure out just who the heck he _is_."

"We should be able to help with that if you'll help us a bit in return," a feminine voice called out from behind them. Neville twisted around so fast he was only able to avoid crashing to the floor by grabbing desperately for the bar behind him. His fingers clamped down and he wrenched his turn to a halt. He was left staring wide-eyed at two people appearing out of thin air near the tent flap. One was a shorter woman – likely barely out of her teens – with long blonde hair. The other was quite clearly the person that Aster and Mrs. Potter had just described. Neville had seen enough pictures to know what James Potter had looked like and the boy across the room could've stepped out of one of those photos. Except for his eyes. They really did look _just_ like Mrs. Potter's…

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sirius' wand raise and his mouth open. Whether it was to cast a spell or ask a question Neville would never know. All people in the room were shocked into silence as a scream almost loud enough to burst eardrums rang out from Hermione.

" _ **HARRY!**_ "

* * *

 **AN:** Yes I have imported a version of Bathsheda Babbling from 'Rune Stone Path'. What can I say, I love the character and she practically writes herself half the time. She's older in this fic which will be a bit clearer in the next chapter.

Fic Recommendation: "I'm Still Here" by kathryn518. Harry/Multi (probably, but Harry is still antisocial enough that he doesn't yet have a true partner). In this story Harry is sent into a different universe by following Voldemort who jumps ship to avoid Harry continually fighting him to a standstill; a universe where he never existed but _Iris_ Potter did and James and Lily are both alive. Ghost!Draco made the transition with him and merges with his alternate leading to one of the very few stories where I honestly _like_ Draco Malfoy! Along with the reformed Draco, a very intelligent Daphne and main characters Perenelle and Nicolas Flamel, Crazy McEmopants Harry (as dubbed by Kat) sets about to finish off his war. This is another of my main influence fics for the Flamels and it has a decidedly _different_ take on their immortality which is freaking awesome. It's an excellent fic and while it's still in progress, it is being updated about as regularly as the rest of Kat's fics. Head over and take a look when you get a chance!


	3. Chapter 3: Histories Once Forgotten

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** A bit deeper of a look at this chapter into how some things have changed and how some things have stayed the same. I am a firm believer of the Butterfly Effect, perhaps not Chaos Theory in general, but the 'small change now can equal a big later impact' idea, yes. Nearly every change in my backstory for this AU has a logical and progressive root in the fallout from Lily conceiving a single day later than in canon and having a girl instead of a boy on July 31st.

 **CO AN:** Not much from my co-author this week, he would simply like to pass along that he is very pleased and humbled by the responses so far.

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Histories Once Forgotten**

The past day had been one of the strangest, most surreal experiences of Hermione Granger's life. She had died sitting next to her best friend then found herself sitting in a waiting room for hours on end. Doing her best to distract herself from panic and worry, she'd attempted unsuccessfully to read an informative pamphlet. That pursuit had been swiftly curtailed when she'd felt a hook behind her navel, almost like a portkey, and she'd been tossed about in a buffeting whirlwind of color and sound before falling to the ground as she rolled out of her bed with a splitting headache.

Her best friend…her best and suddenly _very female_ friend, Aster Potter nearly had Hermione convinced the nightmare had been a dream until she realized that that explanation simply did not add up. 2 plus 2 did not equal 8. Unfortunately Hermione's own mind had rebelled at the notion that all the time she remembered spending time with Aster, Lily and Babble–Shiva – had been a fabrication instead. Not to mention Sirius and Susan and Neville or even Ginny. Whichever version of events she ended up accepting, it was all a living nightmare. Either the friends and magical family she cared for were false or the man she loved was false.

Within the first five minutes of waking up she had essentially thrown her hands to the heavens and decided to embody Luna Lovegood in all her flowerchild glory. She'd done her level best to just 'go with the flow'. She'd resolved to try and accept a life that she was reasonably certain _wasn't_ hers, and yet _was_ at the same time, while subtly searching for answers as soon as she had half a chance.

Aster's very awkward, but incredibly sweet attempt to start a relationship with her had, understandably, thrown her for a loop. Hermione remembered hints that the raven-haired girl had cared for her to a deeper extent than simple friendship would entail, but it was still a surprise when she had come to ask Hermione on a _date_. Even if Hermione _hadn't_ still nurtured a kernel of hope that her best _male_ friend was still out there, she still wouldn't have been able to take Aster up on the invitation. Hermione cared for the girl deeply, but it would never have been more than an experiment for Hermione – and she was _not_ about to take advantage of a friend for a simple experiment.

So she had shot down her very _female_ best friend…and for the past several hours she had lived two lives. One _had_ been full of death and destruction and glorious green eyes; one was _currently_ full of close friends and family – people she'd never met and who had never existed.

The stress of the day had already been getting to her by the time that the Death Eater attack happened and Aster had run off into the thick of things. _Without_ her.

Hermione had fought in a _war_! She could _fight_! She could _protect_ her _friends_! And Aster had _left her behind_! Hermione's control had nearly slipped when Tonks had come to the forest to collect Hermione and her charges; Hermione had nearly blown the poor metamorph's head off with her twitchy response. It was amazing that she had been able to avoid burning down the tent while waiting for her friend to return afterwards.

Said return was joyous enough that Hermione had almost forgotten for a moment that things were still _wrong_. That somehow, somewhere, _someone_ had messed irrevocably with _time or reality itself_. Why Hermione had wound up semi-immune to this world-shaking effect was a riddle she had every intention of solving…somehow. Right after she had assured herself that her friend was alright.

That resolve lasted right up until the two Potters started to discuss the other combatants. The boy with green eyes and a face like James Potter. Never mind that he had a female companion. That detail was intriguing and certainly something to be examined later when the ability to breathe returned. For the moment all Hermione could do was concentrate very, very, _very_ hard on not rushing out of the tent to begin her mad search.

…"The woman with him called him 'Harry'." Hermione heard Aster's offhand comment and it was like a fist sailing into her stomach. Harry was here! He wasn't lost to the aether or a figment of some half-remembered dream. He wasn't adrift in the temporal void of 'what had been and now never was'. He wasn't the victim of a Time Turner fiasco gone wrong. He was immune just like her. He was…he was…

Where _was_ he?!

…"That imbecile is not going to _touch_ those two." Hermione blinked and her face twisted into a silent snarl as her wand sparked. Dumbledore. Fudge. Umbridge. Voldemort. Vernon. Scrimgeour. Malfoy. Pettigrew… _None_ of them would _touch_ Harry! She would hunt them _all_ down. She would burn them and salt the ashes. She would erase all records of their existence. She would make them all curse the day they ever even _heard the name_ Harry Potter if they dared to lay a finger on him!

She couldn't even feel her fingers anymore and the bloody fingernail imprints on her left hand as her fist clenched tighter were relegated to the back of her mind. None of it was important. Finding Harry was important. Finding him and ensuring that he was okay was important. Only after that would she pause to take stock. Only after…

…"We should be able to help with that if you'll help us a bit in return." Hermione registered the unknown female voice, but it took a precious second to truly understand the implications. As soon as her mind filed away the voice as 'New' and ensured it didn't belong to one universe or the other, Hermione's thoughts caught up with her brain. Her eyes widened and she twisted on her heel desperately refusing to feel the blazing inferno of hope that had sparked to life in her chest. She wouldn't feed that fire. She wouldn't heap fuel onto it until she knew. Until she saw him. Until it was safe and calm and –

Her eyes finally settled onto the two bodies near the tent flap. She skated right over the young woman and centered onto the young man. Her heart slammed into her ribs with what felt like a cannon blast and Hermione struggled for a moment to draw a breath. Time seemed to slow as she sought his eyes with her own. His gaze locked onto hers and Hermione was finally able to reflexively gasp, drawing in just enough air to scream…

" _ **HARRY!**_ "

Her wand fell from numb fingers, forgotten, and Hermione leapt forward covering six feet in two great bounds. Her third saw her crashing into the young man with her arms wrapped around him. The force of her impact sent him staggering backwards and both of them just barely managed to remain upright.

Hermione kept her face crushed into Harry Potter's chest and started to sob. She clenched her arms tighter around him and just babbled. " _Harry_! You're here! I was so scared! There was the Fiendfyre – and then that waiting room – and then I was here – and _you_ weren't here – and I had memories that weren't _mine_ but they _were_ mine – and I didn't know whether this was a dream or all real – and everything is _different_ – and, and – Harry!"

She kept sobbing and clinging as Harry awkwardly wrapped his arms around her shoulders pulling her closer. "I'm here, 'Mione," he said softly as he leant down and kissed her forehead. "You need to let up a bit though, I can barely breathe!"

Hermione contemplated letting him go and quickly decided against it. " _No_. I can't! You're just going to disappear again!"

Harry patted her back and squeezed tighter. "I'm not going anywhere this time, Hermione. You're stuck with me. You have no idea how happy I am that you're _you_ ," he whispered into her ear. Hermione wasn't remotely placated; however his quiet, almost reverent tone did allow her heart rate to slow to a level less likely to cause a heart attack. Sighing, she finally compromised and loosened her grip – though she still remained firmly wrapped around him.

"Well I guess I know why you shot _me_ down now," Aster commented wryly. Some corner of Hermione's mind noted the touch of bitterness hidden deep in the tremor of the girl's tone, but the larger part of her was far more concerned with ensuring that Harry James Potter never up and disappeared from her life ever again.

"I'm sorry, Aster. I did try to tell you…" Hermione mumbled, head still crushed against Harry's shoulder.

"Shot _her_ down?" Harry commented. His chuckle rumbled pleasantly through Hermione's ear from his chest though it served to bring a deep flush to her cheeks. "Sounds like a fun story."

A throat cleared from next to her causing Hermione to shift enough to crack an eye at Harry's companion who was sheepishly fingering her collar. "Err, this is really sweet and all, but uh, perhaps we should start talking to the rest of the room before those three over there decide to start hexing us? Harry? If you could convince Miss Granger to turn around and show the others you're not secretly cursing her it would help a lot…err…Please?"

Hermione finally consented to raise her head at that though it was only with a grumble of protest. As she swiveled her view she blinked in mild shock at seeing three and a half wands pointed in her – well _Harry's_ – direction. Sirius, Babbling and Lily's wands were all leveled and steady while Aster's was hovering half pointed to her, half pointed to the floor. Neville was simply staring and gaping. At least _he_ was focused on herself instead of Harry.

"How did you get through the wards?" Babbling demanded, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Those wards are backed up by runic schemes laced into the walls and around the perimeter. You'd have to have Dumbledore levels of power to even _see_ the tent when those are up let alone break the wards if you're not keyed in."

Harry shrugged and held up his Invisibility Cloak with one hand and his wand loosely clutched in the other as a show of trust. "We walked in at the same time as you, Mu-Mrs. Potter and Aster. We just waited for you to raise the wards to make sure it was private. My Cloak is…quite good."

Lily slowly lowered her wand and reached over to gently push Babbling's and Sirius' wands to the floor as well. "I can vouch for that; we both watched them throw it on after the battle. It's just like Aster's."

"It _is_ mine," Aster stated as her eyes centered on the Cloak and narrowed. "And you _stained_ it!"

Harry's eyes narrowed in return as he protectively pulled the Cloak back down and tucked it into his mokeskin bag. " _Actually_ it's _mine_. And _I_ didn't stain it. Blame it on the ruddy tosser that decided it was a good idea to toss a _mongoose_ at my face! I was lucky it didn't tear anything while freaking out when it suddenly found itself sitting on an invisible person." Hermione snorted in amusement at that memory. That had been back while they were trying to shut down Voldemort's control cluster in Africa. It had been _quite_ a funny moment in hindsight.

"As much as I'm sure we'd _love_ to hear that story…Mister, uh, Harry," Sirius said frowning between the teens, "I think it would be best to get the explanation of what is going on, you know the one that the blonde was talking about? Hopefully that includes why you look like my dead best friend."

"Blonde?" The woman beside Harry scowled and twisted slightly to look at her hair in irritation. "Forgot about that…Give me a second please." Hermione barely held back a chuckle when the girl whipped her wand behind her head and chopped off the majority of her hair. A brief muttered spell later and she was left in a pixie-cut with black hair in place of the previous blonde, waist-length monster. "Sorry. My ex-boss' idea of a prank. This is my natural color. I'm not a blonde; and my name is Jeanne."

"Jeanne…" Sirius prompted delicately.

She winced in a slightly theatrical fashion. "Perhaps we should just stick to first names for the moment? Both mine and Harry's surnames would probably lead to a series of questions that are better answered by just listening to our story…"

"I think that might be for the best," Lily said quickly before anyone else could talk. Babbling looked positively mutinous and Aster glared at her mother for a moment before shuffling to the couch and taking up a seat next to Neville. Lily for her part just waved to another couch across from them. "Please, sit. Let's do this like civilized folk."

* * *

Harry settled onto the offered couch as comfortably as he could with Hermione still clinging to him and barely shifting enough for the two of them to sit down. Jeanne took his other side while his mother and the…Runes(?) Professor took the loveseat to the side. Sirius stayed standing with his arms crossed, but at least his wand was put away and he wasn't scowling at him which Harry considered a win at the moment.

Aster though…Aster was a completely different story. The girl was glaring at him and the way her fingers kept tapping her leg and flexing…he was supremely glad she didn't have her wand in hand. Harry refused to let himself consider her nature or what that meant as far as he was concerned. For one brief moment his mind flashed to the awkwardness that would have come about had he instead merged consciousnesses or…whatever…with her. Shaking his head to dispel that horror, Harry nodded to Neville and tried to smile. He was a bit surprised to see the Gryffindor here with the rest, but from what he'd overheard Neville seemed like a typical fixture around the Potter household. Harry knew Neville was trustworthy and loyal so he didn't have any problems with speaking freely around him.

"Um, hi. I'm Harry, this is Jeanne. I've already gotten Aster's name, as well as Lil – "Harry had to pause for a moment and swallow hard before he sucked in a breath and pushed through. "As well as Lily Potter. I already know who Neville and Sirius are. Um…I _think_ you're the Ancient Runes teacher at Hogwarts? Professor Babbling?"

Babbling rubbed the bridge of her nose and nodded. "Sure. Let's go with that. Because that's _exactly_ why I'm here. Wanted to make sure that these two got a head-start on their summer work," she commented indicating the two teens across from him with her thumb.

"What Hermione doesn't have to get a head-start?" Aster commented dryly raising an eyebrow at Babbling.

The older witch just snorted. "Please. We all know that Hermione had the work done before the first week was out. Right, Hermione? Hermione? _Hermione_!"

Hermione flinched on his lap and sighed before nodding. "Oh, sorry. Yes, I had the work done the second day I got home. It's always better to get these things out of the way in order to concentrate on new items."

"Right," Sirius said sighing. "Can we please keep the banter to a minimum from all sides? I would really like to have a general idea of the situation before my wife shows up breathing fire again. I need to know if this is something I'm bringing to the higher ups or keeping within the family and I need a damn good explanation for Amy if it's the latter."

" _Wife_? Sirius Black has settled down?" Harry murmured. "I'm in the Twilight Zone…"

Hermione chuckled and reached up to pat his cheek affectionately. "How do you think _I_ feel? Harry, you seem more up to speed. Maybe take the lead here?"

He nodded and shut his eyes briefly before opening them and turning to the room's occupants. "This is going to sound somewhat insane. Granted, most of my _life_ sounds somewhat insane. I've more or less gotten used to it and just run with it. It might make a _bit_ more sense by the end, so I recommend saving most questions until we get through it."

"No promises," Lily blunted stated.

Harry grimaced, but nodded. "Fair enough. Okay. So…err, first off I suppose you should know that Jeanne, Hermione and I – "

"Only partially for me," Hermione commented holding up a hand and doing a sort of half shrug. "I am…for lack of a better term-half and half."

"Actually technically _you're_ the only one completely normal, Hermione," Jeanne said grimacing. "Harry is a…'special' case. And I'm just an anomaly."

" _Anyway_ ," Harry said loudly glaring lightly at both girls for interrupting. "As I was saying, Jeanne, Hermione and I are from a different world. Well, actually it's more complicated than that I think, but let's go with that for now."

Jeanne groaned and reached over to put a hand over his mouth. "You are doing a horrible job of this. Let the women do the talking, Harry."

"Wait, wait, _wait_ ," Sirius said holding up a hand and shaking his head with a small scowl. "Another world? And you actually expect us to believe that?"

Jeanne shrugged with a small grin ghosting across her lips. "Trust me, that's the _easier_ explanation."

"Sirius, he looks _just_ like James, but with my eyes," Lily stated in a whisper that seemed to carry across the entire room. Harry felt a shiver run down his back at the awe, longing and pain the woman managed to put into a single sentence. "I _know_ I never had a son. Yet…he _feels_ like my son. Let's just – hear them out first okay?" Sirius frowned at Lily for several seconds before sighing and nodding to the trio.

"Okay," Jeanne said. "Where were we? Right, so in the world that Harry grew up in, Voldemort survived in wraith form after the events of October 31st, 1981. Just like in this reality – I assume at least. That would be pretty big if _that_ had changed. Anyway, he eventually regained a body and proceeded to restart the Blood War. Harry was the leading general in the fight and essentially led the battle against him."

"You're fourteen," Babbling stated with raised eyebrows.

"I'm not really fourteen. It's complicated. And there was a prophecy and a lot of things got heaped onto my shoulders by the general population making it worse and worse," Harry said softly. He barely noticed the way that all of the other occupants in the room stiffened at the mention of prophecy with several outright scowling. Shaking his head he continued on. "And there were a lot of others leading…Look, I just destroyed the things keeping him immortal and got lucky due to 'circumstances beyond my control' in the last battle."

Aster grimaced and Harry was surprised to see her glare fade to a look of commiseration. "Sounds a lot like my battles with him, yeah. I only survived a ruddy huge basilisk because Fawkes likes me."

Harry smiled and nodded. "Fawkes is awesome. Don't ever piss the bird off though. You'll wake up with singed hair every night for a week."

There was a pregnant pause as she considered that before nodding warily, "Good to know."

Jeanne let the teens chuckle for a moment before continuing her story. "Unfortunately, that's where things went from bad to…well horrible."

"We messed it up," Harry said with a heavy sigh. "We took too long killing him and he had enough time to setup a dead-man's switch in case we managed to beat him. He was crazy enough that he felt if _he_ couldn't rule the world then no one else deserved to even _live_ in it."

Hermione sighed and shifted so that she was facing the entire room, finally letting go of Harry enough that only a single hand stayed on his thigh. "He designed a runic scheme that works to 'clog' ley lines in a manner of speaking. When placed in areas of confluence, the scheme tangles the lines into knots and then channels the energy buildup through part of the scheme itself before looping it back into the ley line."

"That's not sustainable for long I imagine," Babbling speculated frowning. She leaned forward as she cocked her head to the side and raised a finger, drawing phantom designs in the air. "It would have to discharge periodically in random locations along the ley line or blow up the entire area around the knot."

Hermione nodded. "Yes, that was exactly the problem. Voldemort was _smart_. He channeled the discharge through a Fiendfyre rune he designed. Every time the energy burst through the blockage, it formed a conflagration of Fiendfyre in a random location around the globe. To make matters worse after they had been active for a few days we couldn't stop the energized schemes since part of the ley lines' power was being sent into a shield strong enough to survive a small asteroid impact. Well, a _large_ asteroid – we tried a small one, didn't work. Anyway, we managed to realize what was about to occur quickly enough that we were able to begin destroying the circles. We took care of the ones in Bermuda, Yellowstone, Sydney, Shangri La, Tokyo – "

"I forgot about that one!" Harry interjected.

"How could you forget about _Tokyo_?"

Harry mock glared at his bushy-haired friend. "I was a _little_ busy fighting off the _giant monster_ that idiot summoned!"

Jeanne burst out laughing at that. "I still have no idea how you managed to survive that!"

"Hey!"

"Six times, Harry. Six times," Jeanne commented arching an eyebrow.

Harry grimaced. "Okay, yeah, point."

"Back on topic, please," Sirius said. The grimace and eager lean forward was evidence enough to how much he wanted to pursue that line of questioning though the need to learn the whole story apparently won out.

"Right, sorry." Harry ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Long story short, we missed one final circle around Stonehenge. It was buried deep and by the time we realized it was there, it was too late. The shield was fully established and the Fiendfyre had started discharging. We had managed to slow the destruction by almost two years but…"

"Planet Earth would only have been able to support life for a little more than two months by the time we died. Harry and I stopped fighting it and just waited for it to end when one of the blasts formed over Hogwarts," Hermione stated softly. The silence in the room was almost loud enough to be a new sound all on its own. Sirius and Lily were pale, Aster's face had melted into a scowl and determined glare while Babbling was still frowning at her phantom runes.

"You _died_?" Aster murmured her eyes blinking rapidly as she focused in on Hermione. Harry's friend could only sigh and nod.

"That's where I come into the picture," Jeanne said, breaking the silence. "Harry and I have a bit of a history. He doesn't remember most of it, but it exists from my perspective. I'm a – well I guess I _used_ to be – a Reaper. It's a fancy term for someone who helps ease the transition between this plane and the next."

Neville blinked repeatedly before shaking his head and pointing at Jeanne. "You're an _angel of death_?"

"Used to be," Jeanne corrected shrugging.

Sirius snorted and started chuckling though the manic edge to the sound was evident enough that even Neville glanced warily towards the man. "Okay, yeah, another world I _suppose_ I could see. Stranger things have happened after all. This is the Wizarding World and we basically get our jollies from breaking natural laws every which way to Sunday, but I'm drawing the line hard at having a genial chat with a death angel."

"It's really a lot easier – and more accurate – to think of me a glorified paper pusher," Jeanne said smirking at him, completely unaffected by his skepticism. "Besides isn't your own Albus Dumbledore fond of saying that 'death is just the next great adventure'? I was the girl who sat at the gates and took roll call. Well, more specifically I was Harry's caseworker. He'd died…a few times beforehand and – "

Lily gasped and a hand flew to cover her mouth as she turned to stare at Harry with her eyes watering. "Six…Jeanne just said earlier six times…Merlin…you died _six times_?!"

"I only remember once besides the last one if it helps," Harry said grimaced and trying to avoid looking her in the eyes. He did _not_ need to see his mother crying over him.

Jeanne chuckled beside him and playfully punched his shoulder. "That time in the forest with Riddle does not count, Harry. You were in limbo there, not truly dead. Moving on though, yes, he'd died six times. I had previously been able to argue his particular situation was unusual and got him seven return attempts. Generally a reset only extends to a few minutes prior – in order to avoid the death and all. This time though…" Jeanne's genial tone dropped off into a resigned register and she sighed heavily. "This time, we had to go back at least two years in order to stop the runic scheme from activating. A reset of that magnitude causes 'waves' for lack of a better term. I figured if I was going to request something that far, I might as well push the bounds and get him all the way back as far as possible. Best possible chance of success this time yeah?"

"Hence, being fourteen, but not really," Harry supplied nodding to Babbling.

"Wait…" Aster murmured. She focused in on Jeanne and violently shuddered. "If you're telling the truth you're not from a different _world_ you're from a different _timeline_. When Hermione had the Time Turner she beat it into me that bad things happen to people who screw with time…I'm… _we're_ not _real_ …"

"What? Aster what are you talking about?" Sirius asked frowning down at his god-daughter.

Lily however had quickly picked up the thread that Aster had latched onto and her face paled. "That's not possible…that can't be possible right?"

Jeanne sighed and shrugged. "Like we said, it's complicated. Harry made things even _more_ complicated when he asked if I could come back with him. That's…it's really not done. _At all_. I honestly have no idea why my boss let it happened…It just intensified the ripples sent through the timeline and now things are, well, _this_." She waved her hands around trying to encompass the entire room and awkwardly falling silent.

Harry grimaced and quickly jumped in holding Aster's gaze with his own. "I'm not going to pretend that I know what the heck is going on, but I can say that if anything, _I'm_ the one who's screwed up here, Aster, not you. I'm _always_ the one getting knocked around by Fate."

"Well I would say it's fairly obvious what has happened, Harry," Hermione said rolling her eyes at him. "Jeanne just mentioned something about small ripples being created by changing the past. Obviously your mother survived this time which has greatly changed events. The Butterfly Effect on a decades long scale. Though I suppose it would have had to take effect earlier since Aster is here instead of you to begin with and…" she frowned and trailed off before turning to fix Jeanne with a critical eye. "And none of that really takes _me_ into account. Why do I have two sets of memories?"

Jeanne grimaced and swallowed audibly. "Well…err…you see…you really should have been read into things before the reset so I'm _really_ sorry about forgetting that…I was a bit overwhelmed with Solomon granting Harry's request and trying to slide it by to begin with and…Well, you're _here_ because you're lumped into Harry's backstep to begin with, but you have both sets of experiences because that's the way it _should_ work. We never really expected Harry's younger self to _not_ be here…"

Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose and took a few deep breathes before shaking her head. "I supposed I should just be happy to be alive so I'm not going to pursue that thread."

"So Hermione is the only one who's real…" Aster murmured, her head dropping to her chest as she wrapped her arms around her chest. Harry felt a flare of magic briefly and had to shake his head to clear it from the distraction. By the time he was able to focus on Aster enough to piece together a response Hermione had already jumped on it.

His friend leapt up and reached out to grasp Aster's shoulder with one hand while laying the second onto the raven-tressed girl's face. "Aster you _are_ real. For all intents and purposes that matter at least. Try thinking about it like the three of us come from a different universe. That's basically all this is to us now. Mostly. I think…it's very odd feeling like I _don't_ belong and yet that I _do_ …"

"You can pretty it up all you want, Hermione, but no matter how you put it _I shouldn't exist!_ " Aster said with a small snarl. She shoved Hermione's hands aside and thrust to her feet, starting to pace in front of the couch her hands clenched into fists. "Fourteen years of lies? Fourteen years of fighting every step of the way? Fourteen bloody years of doing everything I could to keep what was left of my family together and it's all a great cosmic _mistake_?!"

" _Accio_ ," Babbling's murmured spell was barely loud enough to hear and yet Harry's gaze immediately snapped to her. A small potion vial flew out of the back room and soared straight into the teacher's hand. Barely even pausing Babbling unstoppered it held it out towards the pacing teen. "Hermione, sit down. Aster, drink it. You need it." Hermione looked torn for a moment as she blinked repeatedly before hanging her head and dropping back into the seat next to Harry.

"Bullshit! What I _need_ is to beat up whatever _bitch_ decided that my life was a _prank_ she could play on these idiots!" Aster yelled waving to the three sitting across from her. Her face grew redder as she held Babbling's unflinching glare for a few more seconds. Finally Aster just snarled again and grabbed the vial swigging it down in a single gulp. She gave the teacher another half-hearted glare before dropping onto the couch and crossing her arms.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he looked between Babbling and Lily. His…mum was just staring at the floor and wringing her hands while Babbling seemed to have satisfied herself that Aster was calming down and switched to staring at him. Shifting uncomfortably, Harry ran a hand through his hair waiting for her to comment. He didn't have to wait long. "She's not entirely wrong. This sounds an awful lot like we shouldn't be here. _If_ you're telling the truth of course."

Harry grimaced. "I'd be willing to take veritaserum as long as someone in this room was asking the questions. I could also swear a magical oath, but I honestly have no clue how to make one that won't kill me or steal my magic so I'd need someone to give me the right wording…"

It was Neville that came to the rescue. "Everyone is making mountains out of molehills I think." Nearly everyone in the room turned and gaped at the boy as he shrugged and kept talking. "From what Miss Jeanne was saying this happens often enough to enough different people that they have standard expectations. It's like when you hybridize two plants. You never know _quite_ what you'll get from the merger, but you have a decent, if general, idea of the characteristics. Generally things work out, but sometimes you end up with a Devil's Snare instead of a Mimbulus Mimbletonia. We're like that right? The way things are now are just because Mrs. Potter had a girl instead of a son. A few small changes made for a whole new reality. So it's like Hermione told us last year and Aster just mentioned, 'bad things happen to wizards who mess with time'. This is a bit of an extreme case I will say, but you can't just say we're a mistake when – if anything – it's those three who got the short end of the stick as their reality is the one that vanished."

"You believe them, Neville?" Babbling asked.

"Sirius had it right," Neville replied with a shrug. "Stranger things happen all the time around the Potters. Aster physically handled the Philosopher's Stone. She fought a thousand year old basilisk and survived. She chased off a hundred Dementors by herself. Hermione was given a Time Turner at thirteen. Bulgaria didn't get a single point in the Quidditch World Cup…"

" _That_ makes the list?" Harry asked his eyes wide.

"It's not like they're the Chudley Cannons," Neville said smiling. "That they didn't do better is a small miracle for Ireland."

Quiet again descended about the room until it was broken by Sirius bursting out in a short chortle. "And _this_ , people, is why everybody in the Wizengamot listens when a Longbottom speaks. Don't ever change, Neville." He smiled and turned back to Harry and the others. "Okay, so I'm guessing here, as it's pretty much an open secret, but just to be clear: your last name is Potter and you are the son of James and Lily Potter from an alternate path through time?"

Harry nodded. His gaze locked with Lily as she looked up to meet his eyes. "I am."

Lily half reached out for him before her hand dropped back to her lap leaving it clenched for a moment before Babbling reached over and gave her something to cling to. Lily sent a brief smile towards Babbling in thanks and turned back to Harry. "Did James…did I die in place of James in the world you came from? Was he…was he a good father? He was so looking forward to teaching Aster Quidditch and how to prank effectively and…was he a good father?"

Harry shut his eyes and turned away. He tried to speak but the words caught in his throat. His hands clenched and the slight gasp that Hermione let out was enough that he knew he was probably hurting his friend with his grip, but he just couldn't find it in him to loosen his hold on the lifeline she provided.

"Mrs. Potter," Hermione said softly, "I'm sorry. Neither of Harry's parents survived that night. Voldemort never had a request to spare your husband's life so when he fought him…he didn't survive. And when Voldemort found you in the Nursery…"

"One of us had to sacrifice ourselves for the ritual to take effect…" Lily bit back a sob and clenched Babbling's hand harder.

" _Accio_." Another potion bottle flew through the room and was quickly devoured by Lily as Babbling shook out her aching hand and resumed her appraisal of Harry. Most of the original hostility seemed to have bled away thankfully. "You seem to have had a worse time of things than the people I know, Harry. In that case I am sorry. I think we all need to get more time to deal with this for the moment. What are your intentions currently?"

Harry looked to Jeanne and Hermione both of whom shrugged and nodded back to him. Sighing Harry turned to Babbling. "Honestly I was going to play it by ear. I had expected to ditch the Weasleys, destroy the Horcruxes and then use the Tournament to ambush Voldemort at the end of the year. I…don't really think that's entirely viable now, but it's a good start."

"So you have no intention of running off to Timbuktu and leaving everything on our shoulders?" Babbling pressed.

"Bloody _hell no_!" Harry yelped. He growled for a moment before reigning in his emotions and shaking his head vigorously enough to give himself whiplash. "This is _my_ mess and Voldemort is _my_ responsibility. I'm going to destroy him and I'm going to stop him from starting his failsafe. Things might be different, but that doesn't mean I'm running and hiding out on some beach just because there's someone else here with a spine."

"I think I'll take that as a complement," Aster muttered.

"It was meant as one," Harry replied grumbling.

Babbling chuckled as she shook her head. "You two are far too alike in some ways. Okay, well now that that is settled for the moment, Sirius, perhaps you had best go find Amy. Tell her full details are restricted to family members. I highly recommend you tell her, Susan and Tonks the story tonight however."

"Why Tonks?" Sirius asked, surprised. "I mean, yeah I _want_ to tell her, but…why? It seems like the less people that know about this, the better."

Lily raised her head and sighed. "She's helping you and Moody run security for the Tournament, Sirius. She's family and she needs to know so that she can do her job right there. We'll figure out if Moody can be let in as well later on."

"Yeah, okay that makes sense I guess. Look, are you guys going to be okay?" He asked rubbing the back of his neck.

Babbling nodded. "We'll be fine. The calming draughts will last until these two go to bed. In the meantime we'll get to know each other and figure out how to pass off Harry as a long lost member of the family."

"Okay…Send a patronus if you need me." Sirius nodded to the group and headed out of the tent flap shaking his head and muttering to himself.

Turning back to the teens Babbling raised her eyebrows. "So…"

"Err, before we get back to Twenty Questions," Harry said raising a hand. "Can I ask something? No offense, but just what _are_ you doing here?"

Jeanne and Hermione groaned and slapped a hand to their faces while Neville and Aster both burst out giggling. Lily held a hand over her mouth trying to stifle her own laughter while Babbling just smirked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Wow, and people say _I'm_ dense sometimes. Harry, I'm your mother's partner. Our 10 year anniversary just passed last month."

* * *

Harry and Shiva had moved to the bar area while Hermione and Jeanne had shifted to the couch to talk with the others while everyone took some time to acclimate to the new reality. In…more ways than one. "So you're _together_ together. Like dating together?" Harry asked.

Shiva laughed and shook her head reaching over to pat the teenager's hand consolingly. Watching him squirm was quickly becoming one of the high points of her day. The boy had seemed so incredibly unflappable considering the situation thus far, and that _this_ of all things was what got to him…She held no small amount of pride over breaking through that shell of indifference. "If it helps, we _would_ be married. Sadly the Wizarding World isn't exactly keen on letting their golden girl go to another witch. The Wizengamot is still trying to find loopholes to marry her off to a powerful, well-connected Pureblood. They're idiots; she'd probably kill whichever fool tried to force into acting the role of a dutiful trophy wife. Granted the Muggle government isn't exactly keen on same sex partners either these days…"

"But…my mum can't be a lesbian. She had kids! She had a husband!" Harry protested.

Shiva's eyebrows rose and she had to hold back her laughter. "Okay, kid. First off, having kids in no way prevents someone from liking the other gender. Secondly, your mum isn't a lesbian. I am, but she just happened to fall for me. She's bisexual, there is a difference."

Harry shifted on his seat and fiddled with his glasses for a long moment before responding. "How did you two even meet?"

"I'm seriously getting twenty questions from a time-lost male alternate of my daughter?" Shiva asked doing her best to keep a straight face. It apparently worked as Harry just sputtered for a moment before falling back into his chair with his arms crossed.

"I don't know this world, or you, but she's still my mum and I'm going to make bloody well sure that whoever she's seeing is making her happy."

"Good for you kid," Shiva said nodding and flashing him a smile. "Much better articulated than Aster. Granted, Aster was only about five when she threatened me, but she got bonus points for being utterly adorable while doing so." Harry raised his eyebrows and his eyes flashed briefly towards the girl in question before refocusing on Shiva. "To answer your question, we went to school together. She was a few years ahead of me. Just enough that we chatted occasionally, but not so much that I directly fought in the war. I _wanted_ to, but it had ended by the time I graduated. I had a crush on her for a while, but wasn't about to fight James Potter for trying for a date. Not considering the way he fought tooth and nail for his own run at her. We got together a few years after the war ended."

Harry nodded and frowned. Shiva had seen the same expression on Lily's face enough to know that he was more trying to figure out how the pieces fit together than anything else. That was confirmed by the questioning – rather than accusing – tone to his next reply. "How?"

"Lily has..." she grimaced and searched for a word that _wouldn't_ paint her partner in a bad light. "A _noteworthy_ reaction to Death Eaters. One day I had stopped by to help consult on a rune scheme she'd come up with and some idiot got it into his head to try to prank her; dressed up in the costume and everything. Lily nearly blew the fool's head off and only the fact that he literally pissed himself and slipped in his own puddle gave me a chance to grab her and calm her down. She broke down a bit afterward and I started stopping by more often to talk. After another year or so we began officially dating."

"I…noticed she was rather…forceful earlier," Harry said slowly casting a worried glance towards Lily. "Is she…okay?"

Shiva sighed and carefully folded her hands taking pains to keep her fists from clenching. "No. She really isn't. She's better, but I doubt she'll ever be 'okay' again. Aster and I…we do what we can."

Harry sighed and nodded, turning to stare into his butterbeer glass. "What's Aster like?"

"She's a good kid. Impulsive and protective as all hell. She's pushed herself to be the best she possibly can. She'll never admit it, but she goes so hard to make sure that she can protect her mum if Lily goes too far one day. She extends the same protective streak to all of her friends." Shiva frowned and peered at Hermione. "You have shit timing, kid. Aster would've probably welcomed you with open arms if you had come any other day. But today…"

"The Death Eaters?" Harry asked.

Shiva couldn't stop the chortle that escaped her. "No. You took Hermione away from her."

"I _what_?!" Harry asked rearing back, wide-eyed.

"She asked Hermione to go to Hogsmeade with her this morning. Girl shot her down. Whether or not that was because she's not exactly the _same_ Hermione we know or if the bushy-haired bookworm we all used to know would've done the same thing doesn't really matter," Shiva said with a shrug. "Aster's hurting and she's probably going to take it out on you for a few days at least."

Harry sighed and downed his glass. "I will _never_ understand women…"

Shiva's chortle swiftly morphing into full on side-holding laughter. It was enough to draw the gazes of several of the other occupants before Shiva waved them off and finally managed to bring herself back under control. "Kid, I'd advise you to take the same route as Neville: accept that we're all crazy to one degree or another and go with the flow."

"I'm _very_ good at that," Harry commented with a smirk.

* * *

Hermione cocked an eyebrow at Aster as the girl continued to glare at Harry's back with her arms crossed. Aster steadfastly ignored Hermione and Neville both as the two friends shared an amused glance. Neville shrugged and Hermione rolled her eyes before leaning forward and lightly tapping Aster's shoulder. The raven-tressed girl whipped her head back around towards Hermione and so many emotions passed across her face in a split second that Hermione had trouble identifying more than the final weary sigh that escaped Aster.

"Sorry," Aster muttered.

"You don't have to apologize, Aster," Hermione replied smiling and squeezing her knee. "It's a bit overwhelming, you can't be expected to just accept all of this right away. I am slightly confused why you're glaring at _Harry_ though when I would have thought you'd be more put out with _me_."

"You're not the one playing around with _Time_ , Hermione," Aster said scowling as she sank deeper into the couch's cushions. "This is all so messed up…It's bad enough I have to watch out for Mum and deal with Voldemort and the bloody Death Eaters; now I have to deal with an alternate version of _me_ who's apparently already stolen the girl _I_ care about."

Hermione grimaced. The crux of the matter. Well…that presented a few more problems than she had expected. Teenage girls were not generally very rational when dealing with crushes. She only had to flash back to her actions revolving around Lavender and Ron and that entire resulting train wreck of a year for proof of _that_. "If I may?" She waited long enough for Aster's eyes to roll and the head bob before proceeding. "You know you would have done the same in his position."

"Doesn't matter."

Neville held up a hand and chuckled. "Actually, Aster, I'm with Hermione on that one. If you're going to be annoyed with him for twisting the timeline into knots when you're admitting to being willing to do the same it's really not fair to hold it against him. That's a Ronald Weasley thing to do."

" _Don't_ compare me to that bully!" Aster growled. She shook her head violently and glared at Neville. "I am nothing like Weasley!"

Hermione blinked rapidly as she flashed back to two very different sets of years with Ron. One life had her close – if constantly arguing – with the boy. The other had her and Aster constant targets of sniping comments from him in addition to juvenile pranks. She frowned and held a hand to her head in a vain attempt at staving off the impending headache. "This is going to be frustrating in the extreme," she murmured to herself. She'd have to find a moment to warn Harry that Ron wasn't likely to be very friendly with him in this version of reality.

Aster's closing argument with Neville managed to break into Hermione's train of thought. "…Fine! Okay I promise to try not to blame him for making my life even more of a cosmic joke."

Hermione sighed and nodded attempting to switch mental gears back into the current conversation. "He's really a lot like you, Aster. I imagine you'll both get along very well. At least I hope so. He's only ever wanted a family and it's unfortunately something that I have never been able to provide for him…Bellatrix managed to make certain of that. Even if she hadn't, once we found out about Voldemort's failsafe there was very little time to think about anything else."

Aster frowned and her eyes narrowed. "So you two _are_ together then? Or…were? Are? Arg! I _hate_ time travel!"

Hermione grimaced and shrugged. "I am not a particular fan either. The proper tenses alone are impossible to determine let alone the potential implications and how it could interact with Many-Worlds Theory and…" She trailed off as she saw Neville attempting to hide his widening grin and the small upward tug of Aster's lips. Hermione rolled her eyes at the two. " _Honestly_ , you would think I could stay on topic. Anyway, to answer your question, Aster: I honestly don't know _what_ we are. Harry and I…it's complicated. He thought of me as a sister for a long time and I gave up on him. I shifted my hopes to R-to another friend. We made a go of it until said friend left during a critical junction of the fight and he and I never recovered from it. Harry and I grew closer while retrieving my parents after the war ended. We never quite reached the point of 'dating' before the failsafe circles started to activate."

"But…?" Neville prompted softly.

"But," Hermione replied shutting her eyes and hanging her head. "I had hoped things might develop along those lines, yes. By the end, we were essentially together even if the poor boy didn't really realize it. You don't just sit on a tower terrace waiting to die with just anyone after all. Right?"

"Well that's a morbid thought," Aster muttered. She shook her head and reached out to gently take Hermione's hand. "Did it…did it hurt?"

"Actually…no. I thought it would, but no. It didn't," Hermione said so soft the other two could barely hear her. Sighing again she looked back up to them and smiled. "But enough of that. Let us discuss something else. Neville, Susan was saying that you have a paramour pursuing you now?"

Neville's face turned bright red and her opened and closed his mouth several times before finally muttering under his breath, "Bloody girl can't keep her mouth shut. I told her to keep it quiet."

"Language, Nev," the two girls parroted simultaneously. They shared a brief glance and amused chuckle before Aster waved for Hermione to continue. "If it makes you feel better, she was telling her aunt and Sirius in order to get them to stop locking the two of you alone in a room together. Aster and I just happened to overhear."

"Merlin, that was embarrassing," Neville muttered scowling at the floor. "I thought she was going to kill him the last time Sirius did that. Especially when he left adult books in the room with us. Mental he is."

Aster snorted. "You're just figuring this out? He's mellowed out from when I was a kid, but not by much. I bet he woke up blue the next day though. Poor guy taught Sue _far_ too well for her to let that go without payback…"

"So, who it is, Neville?" Hermione asked grinning. From the loosening of Aster's muscles she knew she had managed to get her friend sufficiently distracted. Neville seemed to have taken the passing lorry by the wheel as well if his laughing eyes were any hint.

"You'll just have to wait until school starts again. I'll tell you this right now though, it's a bit taboo. We started talking at a party that Gran threw. I honestly have no idea why she asked me out afterward…She's…intense."

Aster raised her eyebrows at that. "Well I guess that rules out Luna. Hmm, I'll have to think on this one."

"Good luck. You'll never guess." Neville replied leaning back and grinning wider. The red blush on his cheeks was almost directly opposite to the false confidence he was attempting to display. It was enough to set Hermione giggling as well.

"Well, Aster, that sounds like a challenge to me. Shall we start comparing potentials?" Hermione asked with a carefree lilt.

"I think that's a better use of our time than fighting the calming potion to stay angry," Aster replied with a smile. "Let me grab my quill so we can make our lists."

* * *

Lily ensured her hands remained quite steady as she clutched at the mug of tea and carefully brought it to her lips for a sip. Her eyes never left the young woman sitting across from her though. The blon-brunette woman simply stared back at her. Finally while her daughter laughed from the other side of the tent Lily decided the stalemate had gone on long enough. "I know why _I_ am staring, but why are _you_ so engrossed with me?"

Jeanne blinked rapidly and hurriedly lifted her hands in supplication. "Oh! Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean to. It's just a bit odd for me. I've been working with Harry and his unusual life for over a decade now and, well, it's just a little off-putting to see you as more than an echo or ghost. This is sort of uncharted territory for me."

Lily cocked an eyebrow and slowly sipped her tea again. "I thought you were supposed to be a death god or some such entity."

"Reaper. Death Gods are a very specific subset and primarily work in the Japan region. They also go by Shinigami; it's not an exact translation. I worked in Transition Assistance," Jeanne stated shrugging.

"You say that like I should know what that means. And you make it sound like a typical job."

Jeanne just shrugged. "Honestly, Ma'am, it's exactly like it sounds and it really is just a job for the most part. Not everyone is happy with simply lounging around after they pass on and they like to have something to keep them busy. As to the work itself, when people die, I acclimate – well _acclimated_ – them to the 'Other Side'. In a few cases I got to send someone back to life though those instances were really very rare. It only happened about three times in the centuries I worked there."

"And yet you sent my…son back. Six times if I remember correctly," Lily said clutching her mug tighter.

"Yes, I did," Jeanne said leaning back and closing her eyes. "In the original version of things, he was fated to confront Tom Riddle in some form and one of them would have to die. I know, not my plan though. It didn't go very well – no one can honestly expect a preteen to win against an out-of-control car driven by a man in the middle of an accidental possession. I…was not happy when I looked into this sweet little kid's file to help him move on so I…took things into my own hands. I bent the rules a bit and I ended up invoking an old standard used by the ancients – people like Hercules and Osiris. My boss let it slide and Harry got to go back and had a rather 'entertaining' mix of good and spectacularly bad luck as one of the consequences."

"Potters always seem to have an interesting relationship with luck. James had some rather interesting stories about that too," Lily said as her eyes unfocused and she stared briefly into the past before rousing herself and shaking her head. "I doubt anything you did influenced that very much."

"Maybe," Jeanne said shrugging. "I honestly don't know anymore. Things around that kid are just… _weird_."

Lily digested that for a moment before nodding. "How…how is he? Is he…I honestly am not even sure what I want to ask…"

"You can talk to him you know," Jeanne said softly tilting her head towards Harry. Lily glanced over to see the young man in question goggling at her partner as Shiva gestured wildly. A ghost of a grin flashed over Lily's face and she leaned back herself. Shiva was always good at breaking the difficult things off into manageable chunks. She'd taught Aster to do that as well. Now if only Lily could get a handle on it too…

"I will. When I'm not under the influence of a calming drought and still on the verge of a meltdown." Lily sighed and shook her head. "I don't even know where to begin. He looks like James. He has my eyes. He _feels_ like my son. But I don't _have_ a son. I have a _daughter_. How do I react to this? How do I give him what he needs without taking anything from Aster?"

"Having kids isn't a competition, Mrs. Potter," Jeanne said raising her eyebrows.

"Lily. Call me Lily."

"Right, Lily, then. My point still stands though."

Lily sighed and sipped her tea. "In a normal family you'd be right. This is not normal, Jeanne. It is further complicated by the fact that I sometimes wonder just _who_ is the _adult_ in my family. My daughter has been cleaning up after my messes and playing my minder for far too long. So does Shiva. Now I have a son to worry about, when I can't even seem to take care of the people currently in my house."

Jeanne frowned and leaned forward with a gentle shake of her head. "There's no shame in reacting badly to trauma, Lily. Hell I'm an expert on that. I was burned at the stake and I decided to go into a downright depressing job for four centuries just to deal with the fact that I hadn't managed to do _quite enough_ during my life."

"Burned at the stake?" Lily murmured raising her head and narrowing her eyes. "And your first name is 'Jeanne'. No…those dates don't fit…but…Jeanne, what is your surname?"

Jeanne grimaced slightly and looked at the floor. "I wasn't a Reaper for the entire time after I passed – just most of it. Um, promise you won't freak out?"

"I make no such promise."

"You Potters are all the same…" Jeanne murmured. A moment later she raised her head and sat up straighter. "D'Arc. My last name is d'Arc."

"Jeanne d'Arc. Joan of Arc. My son's Reaper is Joan of Arc." Lily's mouth fell open and her gaze flicked from the woman sitting across her over to Harry and back again. She flipped her attention several times before eventually chugging the remaining bit of her tea like it was hard liquor and bursting out laughing. " _My son's Reaper is Joan of Arc_!"

* * *

Fic Recommendation: "Time Travel with a Twist" by Shahismael. This is a Harry/Hermione with, you guessed it, a _twist_! Here _Voldemort_ is sent back by the Reapers instead of Harry. Absolutely. HILARIOUS! It's premise essentially boils down to 'get those two together or be responsible for ending the universe from their temper tantrum'. It's a bit of a tongue-in-cheek oneshot and totally worth a read.

Since the above was a oneshot, another rec for another oneshot by the same author. "Prisoner Zero's Birthday". This is also a Harry/Hermione story set in a world following the war where Harry lost and Lucius goes to visit him in an EXTREMELY secure cell in Azkaban. A bit predictable but no less fun for it all the same!


	4. Chapter 4: Harry Who? Harry Potter? No…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** The next chapter might be delayed slightly as I am quickly coming up to the end of the already written material. I didn't want to delay this chapter though as I really liked the family dynamics and interactions here. I know I mentioned previously that Lily is not as well-off as in most stories where the Potters survive. That has not been forgotten or retconned and is explained in further detail during the next chapter.

 **CO AN:** No specific comments from RhysThornbery at this juncture beyond hoping that everyone enjoys this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Harry Who? Harry Potter? No…Just, no…**

"Since when did we have a Manor?" Harry wondered aloud as he walked through the door and cast his wide-eyed gaze around the hall in front of him. It wasn't nearly as expansive as the Malfoy Manor had been or the Longbottom home at that, but it was still impressive. A welcoming two-story entrance way, complete with a grand staircase in the middle and several rooms off to either side were the primary features. A stained glass window framed the top of the stairs depicting a large phoenix and griffin flanking a man who Harry presumed was a member of House Potter. None of the side doors were closed and he could glimpse a large library through one arch and a comfortable living room placement in another. All in all, it was simultaneously impressive and homely. "I've been working out of a bloody two room flat when I could've been lounging in a _mansion_?"

"Language, Harry," Hermione chided, amusement coloring her tone. She shook her head at her friend and when Babbling caught her gaze a moment later she just shrugged.

"I…don't really think this counts as a 'mansion', Harry," Lily murmured frowning. She let the door swing closed as the last of the little group trotted inside. "It's more of a large house. Granted it's a _very_ large house, but a mansion would likely imply there were many rooms not in regular use. We do have a few here and there, but for the most part it's really the perfect size for the three of us, plus our individual projects and a few guests here and there. The Potters have had this home for centuries and Sirius convinced me to keep it instead of selling it off. You really didn't know about it?"

"How the heck did you _not_ know?" Aster muttered casting a baleful eye towards Harry before crossing her arms and leaning against the wall. "The goblins started rebuilding the thing the same night my grandparents were attacked. It's part of their standing contract. Even if _nobody_ else bothered to tell you beforehand _they_ should've informed you as soon as you hit 11 or _at least_ when you came of age."

"Yeah, the goblins…really didn't like me much," Harry replied still turning in a circle and attempting to drink up the entire scene at once.

Jeanne smirked and rolled her eyes at the boy. "Yes, well, _most_ people would get very annoyed if you stole their dragon and destroyed their house on the way out. You're lucky _they_ didn't just kill you, you know that? The little buggers hold a grudge for forever. I lost count of the people who crossed my desk after having pissed them off."

"Stole a dragon…" Lily said softly, her mouth hanging open. She stayed silent for a long few seconds before shaking her head and snapping her jaw shut. "I believe that is a story for another time. You must all be tired. I know I am. Aster, Hermione, are the two of you still okay with sleeping in the same room or would you prefer separate accommodations?"

Aster's gaze dropped to the floor and she mumbled barely above hearing, "Separate please, Mum."

"Actually, I would prefer to bunk with Harry. We've gotten used to…" Hermione trailed off at the sharp looks that Lily and Bathsheda were sending her way. Sighing Hermione continued, "It's not going to happen is it?"

"Not under my roof, young lady," Bathsheda said sternly. "You can sleep in the room _next_ to him if you want, but not _in the room with_ him. I don't care how old you two are mentally. You look fourteen, I've known you as fourteen, you _sound_ fourteen. You're sleeping in separate rooms. I am not Sirius Black."

"Thank, Merlin, for that," Neville said chuckling. "Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Babbling, I'm going to head home through the Floo. Thanks for letting me come along. I promise I won't tell Gran or Mum what's going on, but please let me know what you end up deciding for the official story so I don't get it confused later on."

"We will, Neville," Lily replying smiling. "Thank you for being so understanding. Tell Alice I miss them and she really should stop by for tea soon."

Neville nodded and started to walk into an adjoining room as he said over his shoulder, "I will, Mrs. Potter. Goodnight, everyone!"

"Right," Lily said twisting back to the group. "I'm going to sleep before the Calming Draught wears off. Aster, please show Hermione and Harry their rooms. You can use the usual guest beds. I doubt that Neville or Ginny would mind. Jeanne, if you'll follow me I'll point out your room."

"Thanks, Lily," Jeanne said smiling. She took a step to follow the other two adults before pausing and turning back to Harry. "Harry, you going to be okay alone for now?"

Harry finally tore his eyes away from the surroundings and snorted. "Please! I am not made of glass, Jeanne. I think we've established that. Hell if I can take being stabbed by my best mate without falling to pieces I think I can handle being in my ancestral home."

"Stabbed by your…" Hermione murmured eyes wide. "Harry, I would never!" Everyone stared wide-eyed at her though Aster and Lily both shifted to Harry with narrowed eyes. Hermione took in Harry's confused expression and gasped as the gears clicked into place. " _Ronald_! No! He wouldn't! But when…Six deaths…the Locket…Oh I am going to flay that buffoon alive when I get my hands on him!"

"Ronald?" Aster murmured. Her eyes narrowed further until they were barely open slits and her lips curled into a snarl. "You were friends with _Weasley_? _Why_ do I have to play nice with this arse again?"

"Aster!" Babbling snapped. She pinched the bridge of her nose and continued in a softer voice. "Aster, please. If Harry is really from a different timeline then it's possible that the Ronald Weasley he knew was not as bad the one you do. We've all had a long day. Just…get some sleep okay? Please?"

Aster sighed and muttered something unintelligible under her breath before nodding. "Yes, Shiva. Fine. Harry, I don't care who you think Weasley was, but he's never coming into _my_ home. Got it? You try and sneak him in here, you get tossed out on your arse quicker than a pixie can snort cinnamon."

"Aster!"

"I know! I know! Fine…I'm sorry! I'm going! Come on you two, this way." She huffed and turned to march quickly up the stairs. Harry just stared after her for a moment and sighed.

"Bloody hell, this is not a good start," he muttered.

Hermione grimaced and started forward to walk by his side. "She'll warm up to you. She always does. Just give her a few days to get used to all of this."

* * *

Harry didn't even bother to take off his shoes before falling over face-up on his bed a few minutes later. He stared up at the ceiling as his mind raced, thoughts swirling far too fast and disjointed to even leave him with a hope of sleeping anytime soon.

"My mother is alive…I'm a girl…My mother is dating another woman…" Harry murmured to the empty room. He let out an explosive sigh and groaned, rubbing his eyes. "Two or three large changes my arse."

"Language, Harry," a soft chuckling sounded from the entryway. Harry smirked and lifted a hand to wave at his oldest friend. He didn't need to see her to know that she would be rolling her eyes and fighting back a grin.

" 'lo, Hermione. Come to check on 'Fate's Punching Bag' before turning in?"

Hermione snorted. "Well I certainly won't deny that designation's accuracy considering your history. Or…former history? My word, this is all going to be _very_ confusing isn't it?"

"You can say that again." Harry pushed to a sitting position, with his back propped up against the headboard. Hermione wasted no time is sitting down next to him and promptly leant her head against his shoulder while Harry wrapped an arm companionably around her waist. "At least you remember what happened in this reality. That's got to help with adjusting to…well, everything I guess."

She huffed in amusement. "Actually, I would almost say I have it worse than you. Remembering two lives is not as simple as it sounds, Harry." She squeezed his knee and sighed. "How are you? Really, how _are_ you?"

"I'm okay. This is just… _not_ what I expected. I knew I would be stirring the hornet's nest – or tickling the dragon as anyone at Hogwarts would say – when I convinced Jeanne to come back with me, but this is _a lot_. I was thinking maybe something weird, like we'd be friends with Draco, or Dudley would've been a wizard. Or maybe I'd have been raised by McGonagall or Flitwick or something. I _never_ considered that Mum would have survived."

"Or that your parents might've had a girl instead," Hermione said with a teasing lilt.

Harry laughed and that. "Yeah, that's certainly going to take some getting used to."

"Look on the bright side; at least you're not The Boy Who Lived anymore!"

Harry's jaw clapped shut and his gaze unfocused. It took several seconds before he very slowly murmured. "You're right…I'm _not_ 'Harry Potter' anymore…I'm just _Harry Potter_. I'm… _normal_."

Hermione carefully lifted her head from his side and shifted so that she could look him in the eyes. "Harry James Potter, you are not, never were, and never will be what anyone could classify as 'normal'. You – " she stated pointedly jabbing a finger into his chest, "are _extraordinary_. You have done things that no one else would ever attempt or dream of. You have survived where wizards with decades of experience failed. Are you lucky? Yes. Do you seem to have an...unusual relationship with 'Fate'? Yes. But you are noble, selfless and loyal to a fault. You are extremely skilled and intelligent – when you care to use your intelligence at least. You are not 'normal', Harry. And this is not a bad thing. Right now, you are simply no longer _famous_."

Harry smiled and kissed the top of Hermione's head nodding slowly, conceding her point. "Only you could tell me I'm 'not normal' and make it into a compliment."

"I…may have been practicing that one for a bit," Hermione admitted with a half grin spreading across her features. Harry chuckled and shrugged in response. "So, on a different note, what _is_ up with Jeanne? Can you explain that a bit?"

Harry ran a hand through his hair before shaking his head. "The condensed version is that she apparently saved my life when I was 10 by breaking some rules and convincing her boss that I deserved better. She's been looking out for me every time I got screwed over by the universe ever since it seems. The troll thing apparently didn't go so well the first time for either of us. Jeanne fixed that. Later on, she put me back together after I chatted with the dragon – which was a _very bad_ move. _Do not_ let me forget that Parseltongue and dragons don't mix." He shuddered.

Hermione slowly nodded. "I'm going to assume there is a story there, but I know better to ask when you get that look. You trust her then?"

"I do. She's really nice. I think you'll like her." Harry smirked and chuckled. "And she is not _remotely_ close to what you would expect a Saint to be like."

"I admit, it is a bit intimidating to hear that your personal helper after death was the Patron Saint of France…" Hermione grinned at him playfully, then rolled her eyes. "Really, Harry, what _normal_ person has a _Saint_ watching their life unfold?"

"Oh haha, very funny. You've already made your point, Hermione, no need to rub it in," he commented rolling his eyes. "Anyway, there were a few more things that happened between the Tournament and the Fiendfyre tornadoes that she helped me work out before sending me back. Oh, and I'm not friends with Ron anymore by the way. It's probably going to take everything I have not to beat the snot out of the git the next time I see him."

Hermione's eyebrows lifted and she reared back slightly before covering her mouth with her hand to stifle giggles. "Well that certainly makes my warning that we aren't exactly friends with him in this timeline easier to deliver. If I may inquire, was I correct in thinking that he chose to strike you instead of the Locket during one of your deaths?"

"Yup, multiple times; bloody tosser apparently decided that I wasn't quick enough about denying having feelings for you." Harry paused and shook his head with his mouth set in a thin line. "And he apparently knew about the dragons from Charlie long before they were carted to Hogwarts."

Hermione's giggling stopped abruptly and she blinked several times. Almost immediately her lips curled up into a snarl and her eyes narrowed to slits. Harry reflected briefly on his life and deaths and _almost_ found himself feeling sorry for Ron…almost. Anything Harry had planned to get back at the boy would pale in comparison to whatever the vision of rage in front of him had in mind. " _He WHAT_?" she hissed through clenched teeth.

"Yeah. So I have no intentions of trying to sort things out with Ron. What's Aster's problem with him?"

Hermione ground her teeth for several more seconds before her expression finally softened and she leaned back into her friend. " _Ronald_ has been…dissatisfied with Aster. Do you remember how Ginny was at first around you?"

"Kinda hard to forget the girl squeaking and sticking her elbow into the butter dish," Harry commented grinning.

"Yes, well imagine Ron with similar hero worship and infatuation at first. I believe that Molly had shifted her talks about the greatness of The Girl Who Lived to Ron, the closest in age and…"

"Most likely to be in a position to marry her down the line." Harry sighed and squeezed Hermione tighter to his side. "Do you think she did it intentionally or was she just telling them the stories to, well, tell them the stories?"

Hermione shook her head against his chest and seemed to deflate. "Honestly, Harry, I don't know. I mean, I don't _want_ to think badly of the woman, but it is suspicious that she changed the targets of her 'Potter Story Times' depending on the gender of the Potter in question. I almost don't want to know the answer. She may have been overbearing, but Molly was always good to you."

Harry considered for a moment before nodding slowly. "We'll keep an open mind, but yeah, I don't like those implications. I also still remember how she treated you after Skeeter's articles."

Hermione's eyes narrowed again and she actually growled. "I _hate_ that 'reporter'. We'll have to cow her again as soon as we can."

"Agreed," Harry murmured. Then he smiled and chuckled. "So I guess it ended up being pointless for Molly to focus on Ron anyway huh? Should've still convinced Ginny that Aster was her girl?"

Hermione blushed and turned to stare at the floor. "I _still_ can't believe she asked me out."

Harry's chuckle turned into a full blown, head-shaking laugh. "Hermione, this should _not_ surprise you."

"Well, I _distinctly_ remember a different Potter who never got the nerve to do so himself!" Hermione huffed crossing her arms.

Harry shrugged. "I was an idiot teenager and a boy to boot. Plus I _thought_ Ron was into you and we were actually still friends at that point. Until we got together that night after Christmas at the Hollow I had no idea that I even liked you that way! How the heck was I supposed to know that I wasn't thinking of you as a sister? I didn't exactly grow up with a 'brotherly' relationship with Dudley. I didn't – and still largely don't – have a clue what 'familial love' feels like compared to 'romantic love'."

"Oh, Harry…" Hermione murmured. She twisted and hugged him hard enough to leave him with bruised ribs before she loosened her hold. "If we fix things this time, if things go better…"

"Then we can make a real go of it," Harry replied softly squeezing her tightly in return. "I'm sorry we never really had a chance to talk after Tokyo, Hermione. I…I would like to try…you know, dating. After we destroy the Horcruxes and sabotage the ley line locations for the Fiend Circles…would you like to…"

Hermione pulled back and mock glared at him before breaking out into a grin. "Yes, Harry I would. However, I would actually recommend we _not_ wait that long. After all, you seem to be in the habit of dying early. You obviously need a woman to help walk you through things."

"Hey!" Harry cried, mock indignant, sitting up straight and striking a haughty pose. "I'll have you know that just because you've _continuously_ saved my arse and Jeanne has stuck her neck out for me does not mean I can't take care of myself." The way his mouth twisted into a barely hidden grin did nothing to help hide his teasing.

"Apparently not." Hermione just lightly patted his cheek. "We'll discuss why the universe hates you later. For now, I should really finish telling you about Ron so that you are prepared." Harry deflated slightly and nodded mutely. "When Ron first met Aster, I think he was expecting a princess. A damsel who he could save or something. Someone he could impress and therefore use to surge ahead of his brothers in the world's perceptions. What he got was…well you've seen Aster. She's strong, impulsive, extraordinarily protective and quick to anger. She has a temper and she is not afraid to hurt someone who has hurt her family or her friends."

"Babbling said something about Aster taking care of Mum?"

Hermione sighed and nodded. "Lily Potter is not the woman she once was, Harry. She's not an invalid and for the most part she can function in society perfectly well, but she _is_ broken after a fashion. She has a err, _marked_ tendency to lash out – _violently_ and with _extreme_ prejudice. Aster recognized that far earlier then a young girl has any right to. She's made it her mission in life to protect her mother – even from herself if she has to. It's forced Aster to grow up just as fast as the Dursleys forced you to."

Harry grimaced. "I guess neither of us really had easy lives…At least she _has_ her mother."

"She does. And she has Shiva – err, that's Bathsheda Babbling by the way."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I've gotten that much. Where did that name come from anyway?"

"A penchant for explosive rune experiments, a bit of friendly ribbing and a glaring lack of knowledge about Muggle religions," Hermione commented with a small grin. "But yes, she has both women as strong influences in her life in addition to quite a few more friends than you had when you arrived at Hogwarts."

Hermione trailed off and shook her head to clear it of stray thoughts. "Anyway, _Ronald_. He eventually realized that Aster was nothing like his fantasy princess and did not require saving. Especially not by him. Once he did, he shifted his stance quite a lot. Now that I remember the other timeline his actions make much more sense in hindsight…I believe Ron feels that Aster may have betrayed him in some way – yes I realize that is completely irrational," Hermione commented waving off Harry's attempt to interrupt. "Ron was never exactly the one to stop and think about things for long unless we forced him to slow down for a bit – barring things like Quidditch or chess of course. He started off with just teasing Aster about classes and her work ethic, moved on to insults, has attempted to prank her repeatedly with increasingly humiliating situations, and recently he has begun to send actual jinxes and hexes her way when he feels he can get away with it and she is distracted."

Harry blinked several times and gaped trying to find words. He got started on a sentence at least three times before finally managing to mutter, " _Seriously_? I mean, yeah I get turning on me during the Tournament. He's the youngest son of six and I was the famous friend…I hate that he did it, but I understand. He was jealous. Bloody hell, I even understand him stabbing me with the Locket! Sorta… but this? What is he _thinking_?!"

"I have long since given up trying to decipher Ronald Weasley," Hermione sighed. "I just wanted you to understand the situation. At this point in time, I would be less surprised to see Aster coming out of a broom closet with Draco Malfoy than having a civil conversation with Ron."

"Wow…Okay, yeah, thanks for the heads-up." Harry rubbed his forehead. "And the horrifying visual."

"Malfoy isn't _quite_ as awful as you're used to. He's certainly not nice, but he's not an evil little cockroach this time." Hermione squeezed his leg and hugged him one more time before standing. "I should go. It's getting late and something tells me tomorrow is not going to be any easier."

"Yeah…" Harry grimaced and shook his head. "I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with not previously existing in this world aren't I?"

"Yes, you will," Hermione replied chuckling. "But you have a bevy of intelligent friends and family surrounding you. I'm sure we'll figure it all out together."

Harry nodded as she reached the door to his room and paused to look back at him. "Hermione, if I had to navigate a new life with anyone…I'm really glad it's you. And that it's _you_ you."

"Me too, Harry," she said softly, her smile spreading to encompass her entire face. "Sleep well."

* * *

"…And _then_ this guy asks 'What if I lead him to the stairs? He'd fall down and break his neck right? He looked pretty stupid and clumsy.' " Harry heard Jeanne's voice drifting out as he stepped off the stairs. A moment later it was followed by a booming laughter that planted a grin firmly onto his lips. He hadn't heard that laugh in years.

"No! He didn't!" Tonks yelled between peals of laughter.

"He did!"

"I remember that troll! Snuck away from the Den to check it out when I heard firsties brought it down! Thing was huge and that log it carried was nearly as big as it was! How did he plan to lead it to the stairs and avoid being clubbed along the way?!"

Jeanne broke down into laughter of her own as Harry's smile faltered slightly when he finally realized who they were laughing at. "I asked the same question! His answer, I kid you not, was, 'well, aren't you supposed to run faster when your life flashes in front of your eyes?' "

Harry groaned and wiped a hand across his face. "You know I was _11_ people. I wasn't exactly at the brightest point of my life then," he stated as he walked into the kitchen and mock-glared at the occupants. Unfortunately it wasn't just Tonks and Jeanne, it seemed he was the _last_ one to make it down to breakfast. Babbling and Sirius were laughing along with Tonks while his mother and Hermione had pained grimaces. Aster was rolling her eyes though the ghost of a smile seemed to tug at the corners of her lips. Harry was only mildly surprised to see Amelia and Susan Bones smirking and shaking their heads at the table near Tonks.

He was however, brought up short for a moment as he took in Susan. The demure, buxom red-head that he remembered was long gone and in her place a teen rebel had apparently been born. Susan's hair had streaks of purple shot through it and she had a tight-fitting T-shirt on proclaiming her love for a Muggle rock band. Her pierced ears had long hoops of gold and silver dangling from them and her necklace straddled the line between gaudy and fun. Harry realized he was staring quickly enough to shake his head and move further into the room. As he passed behind Jeanne he lightly rapped on the top of her head. "Stop telling stories about me being an idiot."

"Hey!" Jeanne shouted playfully reaching up to rub her head and pout at him. "I mostly only got to talk to you after you were done being an idiot. Those are the best stories I have!"

"I _cannot_ be the most interesting person you've ever worked with," Harry retorted arching his eyebrows and sitting down next to Hermione.

Tonks' amused snort only barely managed to avoid devolving into a new round of laughter. "Harry, you have apparently caused enough waves both in life and in death to justify resetting the _universe_! I'd say you're probably the most interesting one Jeanne here has ever dealt with." The metamorphmagus grinned over at Harry who just groaned louder.

"That hurts, Tonks. That hurts right here," he replied tapping his chest over his heart and doubling over. Hermione rubbed his back while most of the rest of the room broke out into renewed laughs.

"Oh, I have another hilarious one!" Jeanne burst out sitting up straighter. Harry groaned and covered his face with his hands, but waved for her to go on. He couldn't deny at least mild curiosity in how he'd reacted the other times she'd seem him. "Okay so this guy shows up in my office _almost_ done with his 'quest'. Bit of a stumble near the 3/4 mark. Gets himself stabbed by a jealous…friend."

"You can't blame _everything_ on him. The bloody Horcrux was open and _right there_ ," Harry commented. Just because he currently hated Ron's guts didn't mean that he wouldn't at least mention some of the extenuating circumstances.

Jeanne scoffed and continued her story. "Anyway, so I try and explain how things work and I think he's listening all nice and attentively and all. Then, when I get around to asking him if he has any questions, what does Harry ask? 'Do you think he _meant_ to stab me? Maybe he just missed the Locket?' " Peals of laughter made the rounds again.

Harry's hands dropped from his face and his jaw fell open as he stared at Jeanne. "I did not!"

"You did!"

He groaned and slammed his head against the table. "Oh, Merlin…seriously?"

"You had four stab wounds, four! 'Do you think he meant it?' God, Harry, I swear that was almost worth the waste of a reset just to have that exchange!" Jeanne clutched at her sides as she devolved into wheezes along with Tonks, Sirius and Susan. Even Aster had started chuckling at that comment.

The merriment finally subsided as a familiar high-pitched voice cut in. "Mistresses, breakfast bes ready. Should Dobby serve everyone?"

"Just put the food on the table, Dobby. I'm not sure what everyone wants this morning so buffet style is fine today," Lily replied smiling down at the elf. Harry found his breath catching in his throat as he caught sight of his friend.

"Hello, Dobby," Harry breathed out.

The elf turned to look at him and bowed. "Hello, Young Master. Dobby hears Master's name bes Harry?"

"Yes, that's right. You don't have to call me Master though," Harry said with a wide smile. Flashes of 'the Great Master Harry Potter Sir' paraded through his head.

"Yes, Master Harry," Dobby replied for his part as he just rolled his eyes and started to bustle back towards the stove. "All Potters be the same. None respects proper address…"

"Mmm, scones!" Susan exclaimed as she reached forward and snagged two rolls that Dobby had set on the table. She nibbled on one as she idly started to roll the other one in a small circle on the table in front of her.

"Missy Susan should stop playing with her breakfast!" a muffled shout echoed from the kitchen.

Susan smirked and winked at Harry as she shouted back to Dobby. "You're already cooking again, you have no idea if I'm playing with my food this morning or not!"

"Missy Susan has played with Dobby's food creations six out of the last seven times she has eaten here!" Harry's eyebrows lifted at Dobby's rejoinder. "Dobby requests Missy Susan stop or Dobby will begin taking measures!"

Susan chuckled and rolled her eyes though she did let the scone roll to a stop in front of her. "Dobby, you need to chill out, it's just food!"

"Getting into a food war with a House Elf," Sirius murmured. He smiled, playfully reaching up a hand to wipe at a non-existent tear. "I am so proud!"

Aster snorted at their antics. A moment later she turned to stare critically at Harry and frowned slightly. "You mentioned being stabbed last night too. Your friends were pretty shitty."

"Aster, language," three voices chimed in almost simultaneously. From the bored delivery it appeared that Babbling, Lily and Hermione all ended up doing that fairly regularly.

"Yes, parental units. Apologies parental units," Aster replied robotically with accompanying rolling eyes. "My point stands."

Harry shrugged. "To be fair, he wasn't entirely in his right mind."

"He'd _left_ us for _months_ , Harry," Hermione said. The rough edge in her voice served to remove whatever jovial atmosphere remained. "Whatever influence that infernal item had over Ron was long gone. The few seconds the Locket was open would not have been any worse on him than the _months_ you and I dealt with the horrid thing closed. He made his bed. Stop defending him and let him lie in it."

"As I believe you mentioned last night, Hermione, different Ron, different experiences," Harry said softly. "I have to at least make a _small_ effort to defend him. I erased him from existence."

"Technically, _I_ erased him from existence," Jeanne commented with a small cough. "But hey, as your female alternate has said, he was a shitty friend."

"So it _was_ Weasley…" Aster muttered.

Harry grimaced and nodded slowly. "Yeah, Ron was…err well I guess maybe not _better_ , but err…more…directed? No, that doesn't…Okay you know what, _no_ , he didn't tell me about the stupid _dragons_ I'm not doing this. Aster, if it helps I no longer consider Ron Weasley my friend and have no intentions of changing that. I am rather angry with him."

Aster took a few moments to digest that before nodding curtly and leaning back with folded arms. "Well, at least you aren't completely senseless."

"She means she's sorry," Lily supplied helpfully.

"Aaaannnnd moving on," Susan commented smirking. "Uncle Sirius filled us in, but I admit I'm curious about one thing."

"Just one?" Hermione asked.

Susan shrugged. "Well, a _ton_ , but let's start with one. Who are we saying you _are_? I mean you look just like Uncle's pictures of James Potter. There's no way we can just say you're _not_ related to the guy."

Amelia nodded. "I agree with my niece. What is the current plan regarding that? It is only a matter of time before Mister…well, before _Harry_ is seen. We need to be prepared."

"I was thinking about that last night," Babbling said. She looked to Lily before casting her gaze down resolutely at the table and picking at her waffles. "I think the best possible option is to say that he's the result of a previously unknown liaison. His birth mother didn't make it and he only just learned about us so he managed to track us down and – "

"No." The simple refusal from Lily immediately brought a halt to the quiet explanation from Babbling. The Hogwarts professor looked up from her plate grimacing. She opened her mouth but before she could say anything Lily again simply stated, "No. James did not cheat on me and I will not say that he did. Harry has _my_ eyes and _my_ cheeks and _my_ ears. He is _my_ son. I _will not_ say otherwise."

Sirius sighed and moved from his spot behind Susan to lay a soft hand on Lily's shoulder. "Lily…we need to be reasonable about this. You aren't going to say that you thought he was a Squib and left him for 14 years either. There's no way that we can reasonably say that Harry is yours. We can't even use a Blood Adoption ritual because all that changes is familial magic recognition, not physical features. It would just call attention to the lie from the Purebloods who understand the ritual."

"I will not say that he is not my son," Lily said again shaking her head and sipping her tea. She was as calm as if she was discussing the weather.

Harry, at stark odds with his mother's demeanor – and in keeping with the majority of the room – was distinctly _not_ calm. He was blinking away a sheen over his eyes and clenching his right fist while his left ran over his ear with a light touch. "I have your cheeks and ears?" he murmured. He barely even noticed Aster's frown or Hermione's hand on his arm. "People only ever mentioned your eyes…"

Lily smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, Harry, you do. The eyes are noticeable sure, but I see the rest as well. A mother notices these things."

"Lucky," Aster muttered. "I'd kill for her ears. I have Dad's though. They're huge. Thank god for a lot of hair to cover them up."

Tonks snorted. "Okay, family bonding moment is cute and all, but guys we still need to sort this out. Aunt Lily, do you have a counter suggestion?"

"Lily…" Babbling said softly. She reached over the table and squeezed her partner's hand though her eyes stayed resolutely downcast. "I know you don't want to do this, but it's the only thing that makes sense. We can pass the eyes off as coincidence. Most people don't look at your face every day so they won't notice the rest. We don't have a choice, Lils. I'm sorry, but…"

"No."

Aster sighed and rubbed her forehead. She shook her head and shared a glance with Babbling. "Mum, look, I know you want to be loyal to Dad – "

"And to you and Harry," Lily cut in. She shrugged. "Honey, it doesn't look good for you either if James had a secret affair. And I will not deny Harry the right to consider me his mother. I may not have given birth to him in this reality, but I am as much his mother as the woman who did."

"Mum…" Harry murmured. He moved to stand next to Aster unaware of the smile that graced his lips. "I really appreciate it, but if this is the best way then – "

"It's not and I refuse to believe that we cannot come up with something better. We are all rather intelligent here. I will not accept that James having an affair is the only possible explanation we can come up with."

"Lils, you're not being reasonable," Babbling said. She shifted off of her chair and knelt in front of her partner, finally lifting her eyes to meet Lily's own. "You're not just saying that we can't say James had an affair. You're also saying that we can _only_ say Harry is yours and his. There's no way we can explain that away. We just _can't_. Not without memory charming the entire British population!"

"More like the entire _world's_ population," Susan snarked. "Sorry, Aunt Babs, but The-Girl-Who-Lived is famous worldwide. We'd be rewriting the entire story."

"So go back further," Jeanne said. The room quieted as all eyes turned to look at the Saint. She frowned at the attention and fumbled at her shirt's collar for a moment before laying her arms flat on the table and shaking her head. She lifted her gaze and held Lily's own. "Who was with you at Aster's birth? Was it at the hospital?"

Lily slowly shook her head. "No. We were targets by that point. I had her in my in-laws home. This home actually. The only people there were James, his parents and Sirius. Alice was supposed to come because she was the godmother, but she was delayed and didn't make it until the next day."

"Were you under a Fidelius yet?" Jeanne continued.

Again Lily shook her head. "No. Not for another four months."

Tonks smiled as she picked up the train of Jeanne's thoughts. "Well, I'd say we have a window right there then. Cor, that's right perfect! What if we say that you guys were attacked the night of the birth and you thought Harry was killed? Except he _actually_ apparated as a baby or something and was found by Muggles. Or maybe he was kidnapped, but the wankers were tagged by James as they got out and they ended up dying and Harry was found by Muggles. He found out he was a wizard, by a local antisocial wizard who home-schooled him for a bit then _finally_ saw a picture of the Potters in the Prophet while looking up the Quidditch Cup results, saw the resemblance and sent the lad on his way!"

"That is…incredibly convoluted and not what I was going for, but…well something like that actually sorta works," Jeanne said blinking repeatedly and chuckling. "It's actually something I could see the Sisters doing. The Fates simply _love_ to build coincidences like that into their weaves."

"Nope, bad idea. Not gonna work," Susan said shaking her hair. Harry found himself staring at the patterns her highlights made as they flopped around her face. He briefly reflected on how not even seeing a female version of himself had thrown him for as much of a loop as this odd, step-daughter of Sirius Black…"Okay, Tonks, good attempt. 'O' for effort. But, Aunt Amy and Uncle Siri are always complaining about how the stuffy Purearses and Wizenfools check into the fishy things they want to tear apart and leave alone the fishy things they do themselves."

" 'Purearses' and 'Wizenfools'?" Amelia murmured. She twisted and glared at Sirius. "When we get home, you and I are going to have an in-depth conversation about appropriate language when speaking around our daughter."

"The Wizenfools one wasn't me," Sirius said rolling his eyes. He flashed Susan a large grin a thumbs-up. "Way to go, honey. Love the creativity on that one!"

Susan smirked and saluted him. "Anyway, yeah, they're going to go looking for the old guy that home-taught Harry. When he doesn't show up, that's going to be a big red flag."

"She's right," Hermione commented. "And I'm not certain if it's possible for babies to apparate…We'd be safer going with the kidnapping. We could even say that that was the impetus to drive you into the decision to use the Fidelius charm later on. We do need a better explanation though then the old man who kicked Harry out to find his family…"

Aster shrugged and waved to her doppelganger. "You all are making this way complicated. If Mum's dead-set on being stubborn, we should go with Tonks' and Jeanne's idea. Just instead of the old guy kicking him out, what if he just died a few weeks back and Harry was still getting his bearings on where to go? Easy peasy."

"And then I saw the article myself and decided to try and seek them out," Harry murmured. He nodded and looked up at the group. "I can sell that. I can work in enough about the life I actually lived with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and adjust it so that it was just a mean old wizard who disliked magic, but still figured I needed to know how to control myself and…Mum?"

Harry had trailed off as he caught sight of Lily trembling. Her eyes were narrowed to slits and the windows started to shake slightly as the teacup in her hand exploded into small pieces. "Petunia? They sent you to _PETUNIA_?! _They sent my_ _ **son to live with VERNON AND PETUNIA DURSLEY**_ _?!_ "

"Oh shite," Aster murmured. She grabbed Harry's arm and hauled him back behind her. "Never ever mention Aunt Tunia!" she hurried whispered to him as she reached for her wand. "Mum, calm down! He's fine! She probably wasn't as bad there! Right, Harry? You grew up fine!"

"Um, yeah, yeah I uh…Yeah! It was fine! She was a bit brusque, but right as rain! I uh, I had a brother in my cousin Dudley!" Harry hurried agreed. His eyes widened as he saw Lily's hair start to whip around her face and her eyes began to glow slightly.

"I know my sister, thank you very much!" Lily stated in a whisper that whipped through the room. " _Who_ condemned my child to _**hell**_? I want a name and I will make sure that they – "

"Lily!" Babbling's shout cut through the whistle of the rising wind and magic. She stood and planted her hands on Lily's shoulders scowling. "The day your sister cares for the kids is the day that you, me, Sirius, Alice, Amelia, Andi, Tonks, _everyone_ is dead in a bloody ditch! Fuck, Lily! One or both of both of us will come back as bloody _ghosts_ to make sure she never touches them! Calm down _right now_ or I swear I will slap you in front of your daughter before I force a Calming Draught down your throat!"

Lily glared at Babbling for another few tense moments before the whistling started to die down and the wind dissipated. Lily's eyes had just started to dim as she closed them and took several deep breaths. It took nearly a minute before she reached up and squeezed her partner's arm. She opened her eyes again and nodded up at Babbling.

"Alright, that's enough for now," Babbling said quietly. She shifted one of her hands to cradle Lily's cheek and looked at the rest of the occupants. "We're going to take a quick walk. I think we have our story. Aster if anyone asks, you're the older twin. Don't want to have to deal with Goblin Inheritance Tests. Merlin and Morgana only know what would turn up on that. Come on, Lils." She gently pulled Lily to her feet and led the still slightly shaking woman out of the kitchen.

Harry could only stare after them. He felt a hand close around his arm and felt his eyes widen further as he saw Aster clutching him and shaking her head with a sad smile. "Welcome to the Potter household, Harry. I'll give you the crash course in topics to avoid after we finish breakfast."

"I hate it when she does that," Sirius said softly. He clutched Amelia's arms as she wrapped herself around him from behind. "I haven't been able to shake her out of those moods for years…"

"Harry," Hermione murmured. Her hand replaced Aster's as he sat back down at the table. "It's not all bad. Your mother cares for her family very deeply. She's just…protective…"

Susan sighed and moved to sit next to the other teens. "Trust me, I've seen worse. Be glad you weren't around when Bellatrix Lestrange tried going after Aunt Alice. Aunt Alice was like a bloody _demon_. It was the only time I've ever known – ever even _heard of_ – that Bellatrix decided to run away. _Ever_. I would've run too if Aunt Alice had turned towards me while she was raging," she finished softly.

"I…" Harry trailed off as he looked towards the door his mother had vanished through. He caught a brief glimpse of her collapsed in a chair in the library across the hall clinging to Babbling – clinging to Shiva – before the door swung fully closed. "There has to be something I can do to help her…"

Aster shook her head and speared some eggs. "If you come up with anything let me know. I gave up awhile back. The best we can do is make sure she doesn't get herself killed when she runs after her target and pick up the pieces afterwards."

"Man," Jeanne murmured. "Maybe I should've just stayed dead."

 _Maybe I should've too_ , Harry couldn't help thinking to himself. _At least she was happy before._

* * *

Breakfast ended up finishing mostly in silence with the good mood of the earlier antics largely dissipated. While Harry was pleased with the development of an acceptable backstory for his appearance he couldn't get rid of the image of his mother sitting raging in the center of a maelstrom with glowing eyes. The rage and pain radiating off her had been unlike anything he'd ever felt before – except in the _very_ few instances he let his past catch up with him. That this was apparently a somewhat regular occurrence with Lily Potter – regular enough to warrant off-limit topics – was…distressing.

He'd ended up begging off of a tour of the grounds to ostensibly 'check out the family library first'. Harry knew the guests weren't fooled by his excuse for some time alone, but at least they were polite enough to avoid bringing it up. He ended up grabbing a book at random and collapsing into one of the easy chairs in the center of the room.

Harry wasn't certain just how long he had been sorting through his thoughts and feelings on the morning and situation in general, but he figured it couldn't have been longer than ten minutes when Tonks ended up pushing through the doors to the library and sliding into the seat across from him. Harry idly flipped the page in the book open on his lap. He wasn't actually _reading_ said book of course, but with a semi-audience he should probably at least attempt to keep up appearances he supposed. And he'd been blankly staring at that paragraph for long enough that he figured it was probably time to switch pages.

"So I took long enough they sent a rescue party huh? I'm a bit surprised it's not Hermione to be honest," Harry commented a ghost of a smile briefly flickering across his lips. He kept his eyes resolutely on the book in front of him.

"Nah, she said it was a new world and you would need more support or you'd get codependent or something," Tonks said waving a hand in dismissal. "Personally I think she's overreacting, but hey, relationship building is _not_ my strong suit. Relationships in general? Sure! _Deep_ relationships? Yeah, not so much."

That actually sent Harry for a bit of a loop and he looked up with a raised eyebrow. "Really? You?"

"Eh, the metamorph thing comes with its downsides. Sure, it's fun when it's _my_ idea to swap forms on the fly, but by the seventh guy asking you to make your breasts bigger on a date it gets old. So yeah, I have a grand time on short-term stuff, but I know squat about a real relationship!"

Harry paused and considered that before shrugging. "Okay, I understand where you're coming from there. I don't really see how that pertains to me being a bit out of it."

Tonks met his gaze and snorted, leaning back into her chair and crossing her arms. "A 'bit out of it'? Come on, I may not have known you for long, but Potters are supposed to be smart, Evanses even more so. You can do better than that, Harry."

"Fine," Harry replied with a sigh. "I'm mildly depressed and upset that I apparently screwed my mother up even more than in my version of history and that it's apparently a large enough problem that the people closest to her accept it can't be fixed. Not to mention that I just had to come up with a fiction for why I even exist which is _really freaking weird_ and _totally not disturbing at all_."

"See if you realize the problem why do we still have a problem? I don't get Potters…" The exaggerated eye roll and the smirk on her lips took any potential rebuke out of the statement and turned it into something that almost had Harry shaking his head in amusement at her horrible humor.

Instead he settled on a shrug and mock-glared at her. "It's not that easy, Tonks. Besides you're not one to talk about simply deciding to _not_ be depressed. Or have you not fallen for Remus yet in this timeline?"

"Remus?" Tonks frowned and her eyes widened to the point that she had to be using her powers to exaggerate it. Her mouth also dropped open a tad bit too far to be natural. "As in _Remus Lupin_?! Seriously?! What the… _Lupin_? The guy who basically hangs a sign on his back every day that says 'Kick me'? The guy who's fourteen years older than me _at least_?! The guy who cares more about the bottle than his goddaughter? _Please_ tell me you're joking…"

Harry frowned and slowly shook his head. "Wow…well I guess that's not going to happen in this universe. Great, another life I snuffed out…"

Tonks blinked several times before scowling and leaning forwards enough to lightly slap the back of Harry's head. He glared at her for a second before rolling his eyes at her approach. Tonks crossed her arms and huffed. "Okay Rule One, kid, you do not get to talk about dooming people to nonexistence by coming back in time. I'd say saving six billion people earns you some leeway. Not that any of it is on your shoulders anyway since, let's face it, if MERLIN can't change time I rather doubt a somewhat scrawny fourteen year old is going to pull it off. People _way_ higher than you did this, Harry."

"While you have a point," Harry conceded slowly, "I'm still the one who killed Voldemort and set things in motion. And I was twenty for the latest time reset thing."

"Well you're fourteen now. As for Voldemort, if you hadn't someone else would have," Tonks replied with a shrug. "Maybe you did it a bit quicker than others, but _someone_ would've eventually offed the tosser and then the world would be in the same position."

"I think the fact that I _didn't_ do it quickly was more of the problem…" Harry replied. He shook his head trying to sort out why _he_ was the one confused by this conversation.

"Nah, never send a teenager to kill an experienced psychopath. That's Rule Two by the way."

Harry held up a finger to state a point and let it fall back to his lap a moment later shaking his head. "I have no idea how to respond to that. I have no idea how to respond to half of this talk."

"Excellent! I'm making progress!"

"You're…What is going on?"

"I'm cheering you up!" Tonks replied smirking and leaning back winking at him.

"Are you sure? Because this is quite possibly the _strangest_ attempt at a pat-on-the-back speech I've ever gotten…" Harry murmured. The oddest thing was he was now so thoroughly confused that he could barely remember why he had retreated to the library to begin with.

"I think that's why I was nominated," Tonks whispered nodding sagely. "Sirius is always quite…"

"Don't!" Harry warned glaring at her.

" _Serious_!" Tonks finished triumphantly. She burst out giggling while Harry just groaned. After she got herself back under control Tonks shrugged and continued. "Jeanne was going to come in, but she was also behind the Hermione idea of getting you to make more friends. I floated the idea of Aster since – well it's _her_ mum too that kicked this off. I was voted down. Though I do think she wants to talk to you later anyway. We all decided Amelia was a bad idea cause while Old Amy is great and all she's not really the greatest at conveying sympathy. Susan was the next choice, but she bowed out 'cause she doesn't really know you and she felt it was probably a bad idea to send her straight into the fire instead of the frying pan. I was the one left!"

Harry snorted at that, but he couldn't prevent a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "That is some impressive jumps in logic there."

"I thought so," Tonks agreed nodding.

"Especially since from your perspective, you don't really know me more than Susan does."

Tonks shrugged and grinned. "Yeah, but remember I'm good at making friends quick! Plus you're a Potter, you lot tend to have similar vibes and routines I've found."

"This family is weird," Harry said throwing his hands up in defeat.

" _Extremely_ weird."

Harry chuckled and waved his hand towards Tonks. "Okay, I'll bite. I think I'm sufficiently kicked out of my self-hatred so let's get the script over with shall we?"

Tonks smirked and slapped her legs. "Damn right you are! Okay, so you were upset that Lily is a bit broken and gets set off by some things right? Don't be. That's firmly a Death Eater and trauma thing. Muggles have a name for it, but I'm not sure what it is. PTSD? Anxiety? No…ah whatever, not important."

Harry held up a hand to stop Tonks for a moment. "It was just her sister that set her off though and that's not related to Death Eaters."

Tonks spread her arms wide in defense and shook her head. "Oh no, you don't even get to get _started_ on Petunia Dursley mister. That evil sack of flesh was a flash point in the Potter household _long_ before you came along. Since before Aster was _born_! I still remember my mum first taking me over to see the little tyke and warning me to avoid mentioning the Muggle side of the family. Thought it was right strange at first that a Muggleborn would hate Muggles until Mum explained that Aunt Lily loved Muggles, she just hated her _sister_. Petunia Dursley said some stuff about baby Aster that basically made her dead to Lily forever. Some stuff you just don't say. I _still_ haven't found out what set her off, but it sure as heck was _not_ something that would've changed from a male to a female thing. So yeah, we're going to ignore the Petunia Dursley anger because, really, that would've been the same if your own version of Lily had lived."

Harry frowned for a few moments trying to think back to his childhood and was forced to admit that the scattered memories he had did seem to support that both sisters despised each other to a similar degree as he'd seen earlier.

"Anyway," Tonks continued. "The important thing is that I can guarantee you that Lily would take this anger management problem over watching her daughter – or son – grow up from the Great Beyond. That's a trade anyone would make! You didn't seriously think that she'd be better off dead did you?"

Harry frowned and squirmed a bit in his seat at that. "I think that's a gross oversimplification and it is not at all what I had meant when I was thinking that…Well…Wait…That's not what I…Oh bloody hell… _Fine_ , you're right, it was stupid."

" _Progress_ ," Tonks said her smirk widening. "I am getting _so_ good at this!"

Harry laughed and threw his hands up into the air. "Tonks, you are _horrible_ at this! You're just so _insane_ about it that it seems to work somehow."

Tonks stood and stretched still grinning at him. "Well, I _am_ a Black. We have to manifest our insanity _somehow_. It's in the birth contract."

Harry paused in the process of standing up and stated very slowly and very calmly, "You know, knowing your family, I would not be surprised if that was _actually_ true."

Tonks let her hands drop to her side and snickered as she fell into step with Harry while they exited the library. "Yeah, neither would I. _That's_ a scary thought. Do me a favor and whenever I have a kid make sure I don't write a contract beforehand just in case, yeah?"

"Sure, Tonks," Harry replied fighting back his urge to laugh.

"You're a good mate. We may have only technically met an hour or two ago, but you're a good mate, Harry."

"Whatever you say, Tonks."

* * *

Fic Recommendation: "An Idiot's Love" by I'mjusttryingtofindmyway. This is a longer oneshot with a Harry/Tonks pairing. In it Harry falls for Tonks almost immediately upon seeing her, however in a bit of a twist, she does _not_ fall for him. It's mostly canon but the story only actually details the sections that end up being altered by Harry's crush/growing affection. It's very good and fairly long for a oneshot.

And again, since the above was a oneshot let's have a second shout out. "In Another Life" by kathryn518. This is not a Harry Potter fic, it's actually a Twilight fic. Before you crucify me for suggesting it remember who Kathryn is and the other awesome fics that she's written. This was her first foray into fanfiction and while at points you can tell, it is still _very_ good and a very different take on the Twilight franchise. Basically the Cullens left after Edward was a horrible, manipulative lying bastard and Bella fell into Victoria's clutches. Several decades later she works with the Volturi, has a nerdy vampire semi-daughter and goes back to Forks to quell the start of a potential war with someone experimenting with hybrids and werewolves. Bad timing has the Cullens coming back as well. I don't like Twilight for the most part but I greatly enjoyed this fic. It's a Bella/Alice slow-burn pairing and a _mature/non-hothead_ Jacob is featured prominently with his pack as well. If you like Kat's Harry Potter stories I urge you to give this one a shot as well.


	5. Chapter 5: Horcruxes & Hor-nots…Oh dear…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese. I don't own Winston Churchill's quote either.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** Okay so, next chapter will DEFINITELY be delayed. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson just came out. Probably about 90% of my off-time is going to be dedicated to that novel shortly. Apologies. In the meantime, enjoy Chapter 5! Big developments in this chapter with far reaching implications!

 **CO AN:** I'm happy with how this story is progressing and look forward to seeing what you guys think. On a side note, I'm curious if any of you guys know a bit about Battlestar Galactica (The New One) or the Fallout series.

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Horcruxes and Hor-nots…Oh dear…**

Hermione eyed the young woman sitting off to her side with a slight frown. Jeanne returned her attention with a raised eyebrow and a slight, amused, quirk of her lips. "You might as well just ask, Hermione. If you continue frowning that way your face might get stuck."

"I don't wish to be rude," Hermione said slowly. She chose to ignore the snickering from Aster to her other side. Merlin knew she _could_ be rude on occasion, and generally _was_ rather short with most people, but she did at least _try_ to curb that tendency. At the continued silent prompting from the Saint she finally shook her head. "Very well then, why Harry? Why help him and not anyone else? Why come back with him? Are you here to help us because we did such a poor job to begin with? And are you even interested in us winning against Voldemort; or are you just trying to ensure that the world doesn't end?"

Jeanne blinked several times and waved her fingers in the air for a moment obviously trying to count up the individual questions before quickly giving up and just shaking her head, only to smile at Hermione. "Let's go through those one at a time, yeah? Why, Harry? Because I opened his file when he was sitting in front of me and I saw a kid who had gone through – " Jeanne abruptly cut off and glanced towards a recently returned Lily Potter. Beside the older woman, Shiva gave a short shake of her head and Hermione felt Aster tense up beside her. Jeanne gave a small incremental nod of acknowledgement in reply before continuing more cautiously. "I saw a kid with a hard life and I felt rather awful telling him he'd survived everything previously thrown at him just to get run over by a lorry to fulfill a stupid prophecy. He was looking rather pathetic trying to read the reports himself and I just, well, I suppose I just snapped a little. I took some time, did a bit of research, and went to my boss with a proposition."

Hermione nodded slowly. "The same boss who gave you the interesting hair?"

"Same one, yes." Jeanne glared up at her scalp for a moment before sighing and leaning back. "Solomon took one look at my argument and said it had merit. He said something about the Fates taking too active a role in Harry's life and it looked like meddling that shouldn't have happened. So he let me bend the rules a bit. I've been trying to steer Harry in the right direction ever since, but crazy stuff keeps sending him right back to me. Half the time it isn't even remotely his fault. Seriously, who is supposed to predict that two love potions at the same time can make a person's heart _literally_ explode in their chest? That has never happened before!"

"Two love…" Hermione trailed off with a scowl. "Romilda I assume? Nevermind, let's ignore that for a moment and move on. Why return to this plane of existence?"

Amelia moved from her seat near Susan and joined the others at the main table. "I'd like to know that as well. I'm not saying that I believe all this mind you, but assuming that you are telling the truth, why now?"

Jeanne shrugged. "Blame your friend. I didn't even know such a thing was _possible_ until Harry started mouthing off to Solomon! It's not really the sort of thing that gets advertised you know. Heck, I tried to talk the kid out of it, but he was all 'nope, I've dealt with the unexpected before, you're coming.' It was really sweet…and I gotta say, I'm loving having a second chance to do things right. I honestly didn't _want_ to fight him too hard on it."

Hermione sighed. "Yeah, that certainly sounds like Harry."

"That sounds like a _Potter_ ," Aster muttered. Hermione smiled slightly at the note of grudging respect in her friend's voice. Aster was warming up to him a little after all!

"Next question?" Jeanne asked.

Susan raised a hand at that. "I'm curious whether you're more interested in helping us fight the baddies or if you're more concerned with the world as a whole," she commented rolling a scone around on her plate again and ignoring the glare from Dobby at the continued mistreatment of her food.

"Why can't I be interested in both?" Jeanne asked frowning. "I mean, I really don't want to have my name in the footnotes of history for letting the planet burn, just because I couldn't tell a preteen he'd died; but I'm not about to abandon the guy to preserve said world either."

"Really?" Aster asked also frowning. "Aren't you supposed to be a Saint? Isn't that what Saints do – protect people at the expense of their own feelings about things?"

Jeanne shrugged negligently. "No clue. Don't particularly care either. I've never claimed to be a Saint. People named me that after I'd died rather horribly. I just wanted to help people."

"Now _that_ sounds like a Potter," Babbling muttered softly.

"Yeah, you should be an honorary member of the family. Make it official and all," Aster said sighing. She stood up shaking her head and moved to the fridge. "It keeps getting us all killed anyway."

Hermione gasped and twisted to stare at her friend's back while several indrawn breaths behind her signaled the reactions of the rest of the room. "Aster! What is going on with you? This is completely unlike you!"

Aster grabbed a butterbeer and whirled around with a scowl on her face. She slammed both her drink and herself back down and glared at the tabletop. Hermione tried to lay a hand on the raven-haired girl's arm but Aster just shook her off. "What's wrong, Hermione? What's wrong is _he's_ here and _he lost_! He _lost badly_! And his childhood was apparently downright bloody awful so he was _prepared_! If _he_ lost after fighting tooth and nail his entire _life_ what bloody chance do _I_ have?!"

"You have a better chance than I _ever_ did, Aster," a soft voice murmured into the resounding silence meeting Aster's proclamation. All eyes turned back to the door of the kitchen and focused on Harry and Tonks. Tonks frowned as she brushed deep pink locks of hair from her eyes and moved to sit at the open seat near Jeanne. Harry chose to remain standing and leant against the wall with his arms crossed. His bright green eyes never left Aster's gaze. " _You_ have a _family_ , Aster. _You_ grew up knowing you were loved and from what I understand you've had to fight just as hard as I ever did. You have a lot of friends and very good teachers. You have more than five or six people consistently on your side. You probably know as much _now_ as I did when I went on a year-long scavenger hunt for magical abominations. Hell, you probably know _more_ than I did. I was never a very good student."

"You could've been better, but you weren't a _bad_ student, Harry," Hermione said quietly.

Harry's smile was barely wide enough to count as a rueful grin and he shook his head, before snorting in amusement. "No, I'll admit, I was a bad student and I never bothered to actually learn anything until the Tournament. Even afterwards I wasn't very good and I _knew_ I had to learn to fight at that point. The only reason I survived as long as I did was because I had you helping me along. Aster, you have people pushing you and supporting you every step of the way. Just everyone in this room is more than I had at my best. You're already leagues ahead of me. And now, with me here, we can hopefully finish off the major stumbling blocks before they even come to be a problem. You'll be fine. If I have my way, you'll never even have to worry about fighting the bastard because I intend to destroy him before the summer is out."

Jeanne nodded and deliberately folded her hands in front of her. "That's actually something we should all talk about. I don't think we had a chance to mention it yet, but there are several items we need to acquire and destroy before we can set our sights on Tom Riddle himself."

"Horcruxes right? You've mentioned them in passing a few times," Sirius asked shutting his eyes. He seemed to collapse back into his seat and Amelia reached an arm around to gently rub his neck. "Damn. I was hoping that the Locket and the Diary would've been the only ones…"

Jeanne, Harry and Hermione all jerked their heads towards Sirius simultaneously and stared. Harry's mouth fell open and Hermione felt like she had been punched in the stomach. "You _knew_?" she asked her voice shrill. "You _knew_ and you didn't _tell_ us?!"

Aster scowled and shifted her seat closer to Hermione. "Mum? Did you know about this too? What even are the things? There's more shite that can possess someone and make them into a Voldemort Mark 2?"

Lily flinched. She swallowed audibly and very slowly nodded. "We all felt that you kids were a bit young to hear the sordid details. I…did explain that Voldemort was tied to this life if you remember…"

"You implied we just had to kill him again! Not that the Diary was related to it!" Aster accused.

Harry groaned and left his position at the wall to sit next to his pseudo-sister. "Aster, Horcruxes are essentially soul jars. While one of them exists Voldemort is anchored to this plane of existence. He can be killed, but he'll just be a wraith until we destroy them all. I can't believe you all knew and didn't tell her!"

"I agree, Uncle! Haven't we all been through enough at Hogwarts and beyond to warrant a bit of trust!" Susan piped up moving to the other teens and glaring at the adults present.

Tonks held up a hand and her hair flashed red before settling back to purple. "I'd also like to lodge a complaint about being left out of the loop."

Babbling groaned and rubbed her temples, but before she could speak Amelia shook her head and glared at all of the teens. "Honestly, stop acting like spoiled brats. None of you are Draco Malfoy and these antics do not become you!"

While Susan and Aster both kept up their glares for several moments before glancing down, Harry, Hermione and Tonks all scowled deeper. Harry said in a very soft, very cold voice, "I have been through more than you can image Madame Bones and I do not appreciate being talked down to like a child. You should have told them all as soon as you even suspected. They have a _right_ to know. It's their _lives_ that are affected, that are on the line. They are at the forefront of this fight whether you like it or not, and you had no business keeping this from them."

"I agree," Tonks said just as quietly. Her hair flashed from purple to red to purple so fast that it could have been a trick of the light. She lifted her chin and glared at Sirius with eyes thin enough to be slits. "Just because I enjoy laughing and making light of things does not mean I can be left by the wayside, Cousin. I am nearly complete with Auror training. When exactly do I count as one of the 'adults'?"

Amelia met the trio's gazes before very slowly nodding. She rubbed her fingers against the bridge of her nose, sighing. "We didn't tell you all because we had it covered. Sirius, Shiva, Lily, Alice and I have been researching this for the past year and a half. We have not informed you because you are fourteen years old and have not even grown out of puberty yet. Tonks you were left in the dark because we all know you would have immediately run to tell the others. You are a Hufflepuff for a reason. On top of all that, we had no idea whether he was gone for good when we destroyed the Locket last summer. Riddle always liked to make a production of things and chose numbers and items of significance. Three pieces of a soul would have appealed to him greatly and there was every chance that we had destroyed his anchors that evening. He has been quiet for the most part since Bellatrix escaped. There was no point in telling fourteen year olds about a piece of _vile_ magic if they had already been destroyed. You cannot blame us for wanting to shelter our children," the DMLE head finished softly. "It may not have been the best decision in hindsight, but it was what we felt was right at the time."

"While that makes sense to a degree," Hermione allowed, her arms remaining crossed. "It sounds frustratingly like Dumbledore."

"I don't like being left out of the loop," Aster muttered nodding.

Lily growled and lifted her head her eyes narrow. "Do _not_ compare us to _Dumbledore_!" She ground her teeth together and took a deep breath before continuing. "We made a group choice to shield our children while we pursued a line of questioning that may have amounted to nothing. _Dumbledore_ sat on his heels for a _decade_ and consulted _no one_! He tried to fucking _Obliviate_ me when I confronted him about it!"

Harry's jaw dropped. Recovering quickly he leaned forward and slapped his hands onto the table. "He did _what_?!"

"After Aster returned from the Chamber of Secrets and told me what happened I confronted Dumbledore about the implications of the Diary she'd destroyed. I confronted him with how it simply reeked of Black Magic and how it might have been involved in Voldemort's survival. He agreed and said he would 'look into it'." Lily stopped and her scowl deepened and her hair started to waft a bit in an unseen breeze. Harry noticed but said nothing as he felt his own magic start to rise as well. "Then I made the mistake of questioning why the traces of magic remaining in the Diary resonated with Aster herself. He grew agitated and requested I drop the matter. I refused and he _attempted to Obliviate me_!"

Harry's lips lifted in a silent snarl that was matched by Aster and Babbling both. None of the three bothered trying to calm Lily whose eyes were starting to glow again. Hermione cast her gaze from her friends to the Potter matriarch and then turned to Jeanne her eyes pleading. Jeanne quickly took the hint and waved her hands in an exaggerated shrug. "Well obviously, that didn't turn out so well for the old guy, huh? Did you send him packing back to his goats or what?"

"Goats were more Aberforth's thing," Sirius murmured.

Lily shifted her gaze to Jeanne and took several breaths as she shut her eyes. When she opened them again her hair was no longer waving and the glow had left her eyes. "I avoided his spell and Fawkes started screeching and attacked Dumbledore. I attempted to hex him, but the stupid bird got in _my_ way as well! So instead I left and have avoided being alone with the man ever since."

"That explains why Fawkes isn't hanging around the old man anymore…" Amelia murmured. She shook her head and continued louder, "You never told me this, Lily."

"I didn't want it spread widely. I'm already being targeted by the Purebloods; you know very well how they would twist things to make me the villain of the story and use it to finally wrest Aster from me."

" _Not_ gonna happen, Mum!" Aster spat. "They'd have to potion me to the gills for the rest of my _life_ to keep me from running back here!"

Harry nodded. His hands were still fisted, but his breathing was evening out again. "Family. Family always should come first."

Susan's eyes narrowed and she peered carefully at Aster before switching back to Lily. "Aunt Lily…did you ever figure out _why_ the Headmaster freaked out so badly? He's not the quickest broom on the field anymore, but I thought he was still on the right side."

Lily scowled again and shook her head. "I have no idea! The only thing that makes any sense is that the Prophecy has bound her destiny into Voldemort's, but we already knew that years ago so why he is worried about it _now_ is beyond comprehension!"

"Because if you knew the whole story, you'd stop her from 'doing what needs to be done'," Harry stated. His voice was quiet but it carried throughout the room and seemed to stop all side conversations and murmuring. "He probably also thinks that if you knew it'd have been the last straw and you'd have taken her far away. Maybe he's convinced that by keeping you both in the dark his gamble can pay off and she'll survive like I did…It doesn't matter," he said shaking his head. "The important thing is he's keeping the whole thing a secret… _again_. I could understand not telling me – I was just a stupid teenager – but not telling _you_ or Sirius is…He really did manipulate my whole life didn't he, Hermione? You've been trying to tell me that for years, but I didn't want to hear it…"

Hermione's heart went out to her best friend. She shut her eyes to try and fight down the tears that wanted to spill over. She hated being right about _this_. Dumbledore had been Harry's hero, even after everything that had happened he'd all but refused to admit that some of the actions taken by their old Headmaster had been very suspect in hindsight. She still firmly believed that Dumbledore had in some way still had Harry's best interests at heart, but she'd never been able to avoid the inevitable conclusion that he had carefully guided Harry through personal hardships and torments to ensure a specific final outcome.

"She didn't know what whole story then?" Babbling asked. Her hand was clenched around her cup and Hermione swore she could hear light cracking noises from the china.

Jeanne shook her head before anyone else could respond. "Harry, Hermione, let me field this one. Everyone, you are correct, there are more Horcruxes; seven total, six full, one partial. His old Diary and Salazar Slytherin's Locket are two of them. Most of the others are central to Hogwarts: Helga Hufflepuff's Cup gifted to Bellatrix and guarded in her Vault, Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem and kept in Hogwarts, a Gaunt family Ring reputedly owned by Salazar Slytherin and containing a very special stone which is guarded in his mother's old home, and finally his familiar Nagini which usually remains fairly close to him. The partial one was formed because he was intending to use Aster as the final sacrificial component for the Ritual to make his sixth Horcrux at the time. When he attempted to kill her and failed – "

"Enough of the ritual had already been completed to shear off a section of his soul," Sirius stated drawing in a harsh breath and sitting bolt upright. "Oh shite…"

"Me," Aster said shutting her eyes and downing her butterbeer in a single pull. "That's where my nightmares come from. I'm a bloody Horcrux aren't I?"

"Not quite," Jeanne said swiftly, drawing a skeptical look from Harry. "You do have a bit of his soul stuck to you, but as the ritual was never completed it doesn't have any of the same protections or freedoms of a true Horcrux. It doesn't affect you in any way except slightly limiting your magic by drawing on you to survive."

Susan shook her head. "But it still has to be destroyed to kill the bastard right? How are we going to do that? Harry just made it sound like it was partially luck and partially Dumbledore's careful plots to make sure he survived its destruction…Can we do the same thing?"

"Bad idea. Bad, _bad_ idea," Harry said. He held his hands out protectively. "I had a Killing Curse lobbed at my head by Voldemort himself _after_ he'd stupidly used my blood to resurrect himself _and_ after I'd managed to unknowingly recombine all three Deathly Hallows. Even then I was sorta…partially dead and had to actively choose to come back from limbo. Merlin only knows which combination of things even gave me the option. There's another way. There's always another way."

Lily frowned and nodded slowly. "Deeper stories aside, there does sound like an awful lot of luck involved in that scenario. If Dumbledore was banking on any one particular thing in that setup I suppose I could see why he panicked about me destroying his house of cards…Though taking Aster and leaving the country altogether certainly sounds far more appealing now…England has not done much for my family and I'm half tempted to just leave them to their fate. You know this other way to cleanse the taint, Harry?"

"Err…I'm working on it…" Harry said rubbing the back of his neck.

Hermione groaned and practically vibrated as she held herself back from forcibly slamming her head onto the table. "Way to sound confident there, Harry. Mrs. Potter, I have a theory – a good one I think – I came up with it after Harry had explained everything to me previously. I will need some time to test it out as I never moved past the basic Arithmancy proof-of-concept at the time. It didn't seem like a situation that would come up again and I was mostly just angry at Dumbledore for hiding it and wanted to prove his method wasn't the best option. We can look over it together later on."

Aster perked up and the grin that crossed her face served to vastly improve the mood all around. She reached over and grasped Hermione's hand squeezing hard. "If _you_ came up with it, then I _know_ it's going to work. Thanks, Hermione. Saving me without even meaning to this time, huh?"

"I always will, Aster," Hermione replied returning her friend's expression.

"I feel like I should be jealous, but…this is kind of intriguing…" Harry murmured ruefully.

While most of the adults simply rolled their eyes or groaned, Tonks and Susan burst out into laughter. Susan wiped at her eyes and winked at Harry. "Remind me to show you some of Uncle Sirius' magazines, Harry. I feel like you and I will find some very _intriguing_ items on display in them. He's got both Playwitch _and_ Playwizard."

"Susan!" Amelia shouted, as Sirius winced theatrically in protest as the remainder of the room started laughing as well.

* * *

After the airing of the Horcrux issue Harry and Aster ended up wandering off to ostensibly 'tour the manor'. They had been walking for less than five minutes before Aster fell quiet. She cast a measured gaze at Harry and grimaced turning back quickly to glower at the carpeting. "Harry…Look I'm sorry for being such a raging prat to you since you showed up. Things have been…difficult lately. Mum is getting worse, the Death Eaters are starting to dance around in the open, Bellatrix is free, Voldemort is getting stronger, my nightmares actually _hurt_ now, and to top things off I _thought_ Hermione liked me…" She trailed off and scowled kicking idly at a section of the carpeting that was sticking up. "Look, what I mean to say is I'm sorry okay? I shouldn't be taking my problems out on you."

She felt more than saw Harry shrug and glanced to him out of the corner of her eye. To his credit he was pretending to be more focused on the decorations in the hall than on her confessing to being a total jerk. "It's okay. I was a horrible git to most of my friends when I hit fifteen, so I have an idea what it's like. Actually, I'm amazed I still had friends after that year with how much I snapped at everyone around me. You just seem to have hit it a bit early."

"Stupid puberty. Stupid hormones," Aster mumbled.

"Agreed," Harry said chuckling. "Just curiously – you don't have to answer if you don't want – why _did_ you think that Hermione liked you, you know, like 'that'?"

Aster shrugged. Normally she'd only talk about this sort of personal stuff with Hermione, but that wasn't exactly an option – for obvious reasons – and while Susan was great, the girl was nowhere near acceptable for discussing something like this. There was too much of Sirius in her. Harry was…well if she couldn't talk about relationships with her sort-of-brother, sort-of-doppelganger who could she talk about it with? "She's just…she's always been there. She was the only one to stick by me when people started calling me the Heir of Slytherin in second year."

"Wait, the only one? Neville and Susan – " Harry started before Aster shook her head and cut him off.

Aster rolled her eyes. "The only one that didn't know me before school I mean. She always helps me when I read ahead and practice longer. She comes over during the holidays. She hugs me; she hugs me _a lot_. She always says how I'm her best friend. She chose to go to Hogsmeade with me over any of the boys last year. Whenever I ask her for, well _anything_ , she immediately jumps to help me do it or get it for me." Aster shrugged again and sighed. "Shiva does the same sort of stuff for Mum. I thought it was what people who love someone just _do_. I thought that it meant Hermione liked me."

"Did you ever actually ask Hermione what her…preferences are; before springing that date on her?" Harry asked gently.

"Asking someone on a date is bloody terrifying you know!" Aster growled with a scowl firmly crossing her face. She turned to glare at Harry only to see him grimacing and nodding along.

"Trust me, I fully agree there. I didn't have a date to the Yule Ball until like the _night_ beforehand because I couldn't get up the nerve to ask a girl."

Aster blinked repeatedly and had to consciously stop her jaw from dropping. She finally managed to snort in amusement at him and cock her head to the side with a small grin spreading. "Seriously? The-Boy-Who-Lived couldn't get a _date_ to a _dance_?"

"At least I did better than Ron," Harry replied shuddering. " _He_ shouted his request in the middle of the Great Hall and ran like a bat out of hell before even waiting for a response. I still find it amusing that Fleur didn't send a fireball after him for that."

"Fireball?" Aster replied quizzically. She could totally see Weasley making a fool of himself like that.

Harry nodded. "Fleur's a Veela; she tends to send fireballs at people if they annoy her too much. It's rather amusing. Hermione and I were some of the only ones to ever avoid her wrath. I honestly don't know how I managed to make that short list considering her first words to me were 'leetle boy'."

Aster couldn't help herself as she started laughing at that. "That's got to be emasculating, having a Veela call you a 'leetle boy'!"

"I was more worried about the Triwizard Tournament at the time. It barely registered on the scale of things that sucked in my life at that point. We got along much better after a few weeks; especially once she started dating Bill after a few years. I was basically the only one who made her feel welcome in the Weasley household."

"Of course you were; 'cause you're a Golden Boy," Aster murmured. "Look, can we talk about something else?"

Harry nodded. Before he could change the subject though Aster saw his eyes snap to the side and the soft voices of her mothers drifted out of the room they were walking past. Aster slowed and glanced through catching sight of Shiva and Lily standing in front of the painting of the melting clocks. "Lils, I still say we should sell the other one."

"Oh please, you just don't want to sell the Dalí," Lily scoffed. "You made me sell the Monet the last time we needed funds. I loved that painting. Now you get to lose the Dalí. This one is creepy! Even Aster dislikes it."

"I do," Aster murmured to Harry. "Clocks shouldn't look like that. Too much like a Time Turner accident gone _bad_."

"The Picasso will bring more money!" Shiva protested waving her hands and standing in front of the painting. "Everybody loves Picasso!"

"And everybody will _still_ love Picasso in a few years. Dalí is on the rise recently. We can pay for Harry's entire remaining school tuition in one go."

Shiva growled and crossed her arms. "I _like_ this painting."

"I'll make it worth your while," Lily replied. Her voice had a sultry lilt and she hung her head with a coy look sweeping across her face as she stepped closer to her partner.

Aster made a strangled noise in the back of her throat that closely matched the one issuing from the boy beside her. She grabbed his arm and hurried twisted to walk far away from that room. They reached the veranda to the backyard and Aster pushed the doors open only stopping their retreat as she came to the balcony's railing. She let go of Harry and breathed a sigh of relief as she crossed her arms and leant onto the banister.

"Are they…really that hard up that they have to sell stuff to pay for Hogwarts?" Harry asked quietly. The pain in his voice had Aster quickly turning her head to stare at him. His haunted and far off expression had her stomach flipping. She saw that same look in the mirror every time her mother had an episode and she couldn't do anything to help. "The last thing I want is to be a burden. I don't need to go back, I already know a lot of what they would be teaching me there anyway…"

"Harry, Mum is not going to let you _not_ go to Hogwarts," Aster replied softly. She debated about laying a hand on his arm, but eventually decided against it. They weren't close enough to do that and he didn't seem to like people touching him anyway if the way he tensed whenever Lily had gotten close was any indication. "We have enough to get by. They didn't drain Mum completely. Mostly yes, but not completely. We were able to keep the house and most of the stuff in it. Shiva has a small side business with her rune inventions and Mum is really good with potions. When I hit my majority I can start withdrawing the royalties from the Skelegrow and Pepperup potions and that'll help _a lot_. Right now those are going to the bastard leech 'relatives'. For the moment, we mostly just sell one of the older paintings if we need gold quick. It's easy enough and eventually I'll be able to buy all the stuff back for them if they want it."

Harry nodded slowly. "Hermione mentioned a few years back that I should be getting royalties for those. I didn't care much to investigate at the time…It seemed like a really minor thing considering all the other stuff we were dealing with."

Aster sighed. "You really need to start caring about more than just killing Voldemort. It's not a healthy way to live."

Harry chuckled and shot her a half smile. "Actually, I was more worried about finding Hermione's parents at the time. When we finally had a chance to start looking into it that stuff was when we first saw Voldemort's runic circles starting up so those took priority."

"Ah," Aster replied. "I suppose I'm a bit of hypocrite there anyway. I want to kill the bastard as much as you probably did. Hell I probably want to kill him more."

"I was sent to live with the Dursleys for seventeen years and both my parents were killed," Harry responded in a teasing deadpan.

Aster lifted an eyebrow and cast an aside glance at him. "My Mum is a scary berserker half the time and I have to clean up after her to make sure I don't get carted off to some twit family only interested in my fame."

"I have very few friends."

"I have boys coming out of the woodwork to ask for betrothals when all I care about are girls."

Harry smirked. "I fail to see how that is _Voldemort's_ fault."

"Oh that is – " Aster cut herself off and frowned. She opened her mouth to continue her rebuttal, but the reply died before it could escape her. Her frown deepened and a few moments later she shook her head growling low. "Fine, you win, it's not really related to him. I mean it _is_ , because I wouldn't be famous without him destroying my family, but I can't claim it as making you and me different. It's not really fair to compare gender preferences like that."

"I win," Harry replied smugly. He leant on the railing next to her and looked over the field with narrowing eyes. "Why were we competing about who has the bigger grudge against a madman?"

"Because we're sort-of siblings and siblings are supposed to fight over weird things?" Aster suggested shrugging. "It seemed like a safer topic than 'hey you stole my girl' or 'I still can't believe you're friends with a git who's worse than Malfoy'."

"Formerly friends," Harry corrected. He chuckled and shook his head. "I admit, I'm _really_ curious how Draco Malfoy isn't _that_ bad here."

"Well, funny story that…"

* * *

"Thank you for inviting me over this morning," Neville's guest said casually sipping her tea. She carefully placed the cup down on its coaster and leaned back into her chair. Of course, she didn't lean _all_ the way back; one had to appear relaxed yet proper after all. This was as much a preliminary seduction as a casual meeting. Though she counted her prospects as 'excellent' seeing as how _Neville_ had contacted _her_ rather than the other way around.

Across from her Neville set his own teacup down and smiled. "It seemed only fair. You deserve an answer to your question after all and I wasn't exactly verbose in my original reply."

She chuckled and raised an eyebrow at him. "That's one way to put it."

"Certainly sounds better than 'sputtering random noises and mumblings before hurriedly making a retreat' I would think."

"It does," she agreed her grin widening. "It was adorable by the way. Though I admit I am glad that your grandmother has had some influence on your upbringing."

"You don't like Mum?" Neville asked. The question and inflection were casual enough though she was just barely able to see the tensing of his shoulders. Any looser of a robe and she'd have missed it. He was _soo_ hard to _read_! A shiver of excitement ran through her body at that reminder. She _loved_ not knowing what made this boy tick!

Outwardly suppressing her glee at Neville's continued ability to frustrate her observation skills she shook her head. "I did not say that. I merely stated that your grandmother passed some of her etiquette skills along to you. No slight was meant to your mother. Alice Longbottom is an amazing woman and I greatly respect her. However, you really can't deny that you mother is rather against almost anything dealing with the Wizengamot and political matters in general."

Neville nodded and sighed. He grabbed his teacup again before replying to her. "Yeah, I guess so. Mum, was never really into the Ministry even before they tried to enforce committing Dad to St. Mungo's."

She nodded in commiseration. While privately she agreed that it would've been easier on the family as a whole if Frank Longbottom had stayed in the Long Term Care Ward, she fully understood wanting to care for him in their home. That level of concern and love was another reason that she always found the Grey and Light factions more appealing than the Dark. Seeing a sick family member would be anathema to someone from the Avery line! "Has there been any change since the last time we spoke?"

"Not really. He seems to remember the gardens a bit more now though. Mum showed him my Mimbletonia and I think he actually recognized it."

"You must have been proud." Inwardly she crowed in success as his mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly in a grin.

"Just a bit, yeah." He set the cup back down and took a deep breath. "So, anyway, before I answer your earlier question, I have one of my own."

"That seems reasonable." And smart; she added another point into his political savvy.

"Why _me_?"

Blinking rapidly she slowly took a sip to give herself time to formulate a response. It wasn't so much that she hadn't been expecting that question. It was more of how _blunt_ he was with the asking. Neville Longbottom was an enigma. Equal parts Pureblood Prince and Muggle Follower. The lumbering bear and the subtle fox were both present in him and she could never get through a single conversation without being thrown for a loop somewhere along the line.

It was _intoxicating_!

"Well, Neville, to be perfectly honest there are several reasons why I chose to court you," she replied carefully. "In no particular order, one would obviously be political. Your grandmother and your father were staunch supporters of Dumbledore and leaders in his Light faction for decades. Then abruptly in '81 your family shifted to support the Greys instead and cut all ties with Dumbledore. None have yet determined why and while my father gave up long ago, I still find the mystery interesting."

Neville frowned at that and stared at her for several long moments. "We're not allied with the Greys. We stand behind the _Potters_. They don't have a faction."

She couldn't prevent a snort of amusement at that. "Please, you have more political awareness than that, Neville."

"Apparently I don't," he said shaking his head. "I honestly don't believe we support the Greys. _Your_ family does though."

"Ah, I see the confusion," she sighed and leant forward a bit consenting to lean her elbows on her knees. "You haven't actually attended the side meetings have you? The faction we support has been rebranded as the Traditionalists. We focus on what we always have, maintaining culture and tradition while accepting moderate new ideas if they make sense and have been properly vetted. The true Grey faction though straddles the line far more effectively. They preach modernization while retaining the core of what makes Magical Society…well, magical. Unlike the Light, they are great fans of retribution; they actively hold personnel accountable for their actions. They will perhaps allow for a single second chance, but no further. They are the true moderates of our world these days and they are led by Lily Evans."

"You mean Lily Potter," Neville stated lifting his eyebrows.

She shook her head. "No, I mean Lily Evans. The _Potters_ have been Light for centuries. Just as the Blacks have been Dark for centuries. Things changed when Lily Evans entered the picture and those fools who opposed her have been licking their wounds ever since she took the reins. Yes, she may be a Potter in name, but in action she is _Evans_. It is really quite impressive how powerful she has become with how limited her resources became with the death of her husband. That she can continue to openly court the Lady Babbling speaks enough as to her abilities alone barring anything else about her. She is what I hope to become one day. My own mother is loving, but she is not the role model that Lily Evans is."

Neville took a long sip from his tea at the close of her short speech. Long enough that she began to wonder if he was searching for a response as she had been earlier. Eventually he replaced the cup and slowly nodded. "I suppose I can see it from that perspective. It's a bit different when you're friends with her and her family though."

"I imagine so. Another reason to court you; I would be able to learn from the master directly."

Neville actually snorted at that and laughed though she smiled as she saw the legitimate mirth on his features instead of mocking. "When you start telling Aster's Mum that she's politically shrewd I _totally_ plan to be in the room with popcorn."

"Popcorn?"

"Muggle snack food. You're going to love it. It's amazing!" Neville waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, political issues aside, I'm assuming there was more to your request? At least, I would _hope_ so."

She swallowed hard and sat up straighter in the chair carefully folding her hands on her lap. "Yes. I am…quite skilled at personal interactions, Neville. I pride myself on being able to size up a person and their inclinations within the first five minutes of meeting them. It's a skill I've used to great effect before. Well enough to be included in several of my father's primary contract negotiations over the past year. I have even been described by a goblin as a prodigy at the craft after correctly determining where our solicitor stood in his discussions with us." She paused and fixed him with a measured gaze, the hint of a smile crossing her features.

Before she could respond continue though they were interrupted by a loud expletive from the nearby kitchen. "Dammit, Augusta! The French coming here is a _good_ thing! We need more allies and Beauxbatons is a gold mine of potential!"

"Stop shouting, woman!" the Longbottom matriarch returned. "They are French and as far as I am concerned that is enough said about the matter. They eat snails, Alice! Snails!"

"You are _impossible_ – " the answering shout was cut off as Neville sent a silencing charm towards the wall and cast an additional few around the room for good measure.

He set his wand down and turned to her with a slight blush on his features. "Sorry about that, Mum and Grandmother don't always see eye to eye on things."

She shrugged and smiled at him. "It's quite alright, you should hear some of the fights between my family. Anyway, as I was saying, being genuinely surprised during a conversation is a rare thing for me these days and I believe it will only grow rarer as I assume the Heir role moving forward. _You_ however…To borrow a phrase from a Muggle leader, you are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside of an enigma. You are strong yet docile; stubborn yet brash; political yet unconcerned; handsome yet homely; friend of Hermione Granger and Susan Black. I have great difficulty predicting your reactions or your stance on things. It is quite frankly, a supremely wonderful experience to not be able to read my paramour easily."

Neville opened his mouth to reply before slowly closing it again and choosing instead to lean forward and lock eyes with her. "Before you fully commit you should probably know something. I just recently decided to give up on a different girl I liked."

She nodded. "Aster Potter correct?" He nodded. "I assumed so. It's perfectly alright. I knew you had some degree of feelings for her when I stole that dance with you the other evening. I honestly don't care. I'm not intimidated by her as her preferences are well known amongst the Slytherins. My roommate has been hoping to try to seduce her actually. I doubt she'll succeed, but that's neither here nor there. I don't care if you look at other women Neville. As long as you come back to me and don't wind up with an illegitimate child at some point I am perfectly willing to play second fiddle as long as you can keep confounding me."

"That's…progressive of you," Neville replied carefully. "I wouldn't do that anyway. If I'm going to date you, I'm going to _date you_. My eyes won't be wandering."

She smiled and nodded. "That is good to hear, and honestly I suspected as much. You are an honorable sort. However, I never said I would be lackadaisical anyway. I fully intend to continually remind you of why _I_ am worth returning to. My family married for political reasons. I wish to actually _know_ and _like_ and _enjoy_ my partner. And you will _greatly_ appreciate the lengths I am willing to go to to ensure that I am a proper paramour for you."

Neville laughed and the grin that split his face sent her heart fluttering for a brief moment. "I'm not sure if I should be intimidated or spellbound at that proclamation!"

"I would say a bit of both is appropriate," she responded with a coy wink and an answering smile of her own.

"Well then, in that case," he said moving forward to clasp her hand from across the suddenly much reduced between them. "Daphne Greengrass, I do believe we are courting each other."

* * *

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Sirius muttered as he led the small group up the dirt path towards the ramshackle cabin. "Teenagers on a night raid…"

"Didn't you use to run around the Forbidden Forest with a werewolf?" Tonks asked winking at Harry beside her. "Honestly, Cousin, you really don't have the right to complain here."

"He has every right to complain here," Amelia replied with a scowl. " _I_ have every right to complain. I don't care how much magic Harry knows, this is the birthplace of _Tom Riddle_. He is Susan's age. If I wasn't convinced we'd be facing Parselmagic spells I would have left them _both_ home."

Harry turned to Aster and shrugged. "At least I'm not the only one included in their annoyance," he murmured to her. Aster didn't even deign his comment worth a response and tightened her hold on her wand. Harry sighed as he saw her knuckles turn white. Louder he said to the rest of the group, "Guys, really you can loosen up a bit. Voldemort is far too busy dealing with being a homunculus at the moment to have anything setup beyond the trap wards. Dumbledore was perfectly fine until he fell for the compulsion charm on the ring and we already know about that. We're good."

To Tonks' other side Jeanne sighed and shook her head. "You are far too cavalier about this, Harry. Your family itself has changed. A little thing like Riddle's protections is minor and something easily mutable. We have to be careful."

"Hence why we made sure to leave Mum at home," Aster commented. She glared at the shack ahead as the six pulled to a stop. "Riddle grew up in this dump?"

"No, Riddle grew up in an orphanage." Harry shook his head and frowned. "His mother though _did_ grow up here. It wasn't a good childhood from what I understand. She may have birthed a monster and essentially raped a local Muggle, but I still feel bad for the woman. She never had much of a chance with the monsters in her immediate family."

"Less history and more work, people. Joking when dealing with Voldemort is not a good idea," Sirius said drawing his wand and casting several detection charms on the vicinity.

Harry's eyes widened slightly and he blinked at his godfather's back repeatedly. "Wow. Who are you and what have you done with Sirius Black?"

"Everyone has to grow up and learn the appropriate time for pranks and jokes at some point," Sirius commented offhand focusing almost completely on his spellwork. "I have to be responsible for Susan. Can't be the same idiot I was back in school. Nearly went to Azkaban for losing my cool and then nearly lost my head when I took playful potshots at my Bella during a duel. I'm never making those mistakes again."

Jeanne shifted to Harry side and squeezed his shoulder. "He's still the man you know, Harry. He just also takes his job…err, he takes pride in his job now."

Tonks snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, avoiding the puns can be hard, Jeanne, but that was a pretty poor substitute for 'Sirius takes his work seriously'."

"I'm working on it," Jeanne shot back glaring briefly at Tonks who simply smiled back in response.

"Aster, Harry, front and center," Sirius cut through the banter. "The main walkway is clear and Amy and I took down the alert ward. There's definitely some sort of Parsel spell on the door itself though. Any ideas?"

Harry muttered a soft incantation for Mage Sight and peered at the door to the Gaunt Shack as Aster and he stepped up next to Sirius. He leant in closer to the door and carefully reached out a hand watching a phantom snake shift its gaze to the extremity and slither around the frame with fangs extended. Pulling his hand back he nodded. "I think it's a basic defense scheme; poisons those uninvited. I'm not entirely sure how to get around it beyond brute force though."

"Boys; always going for blowing things up when a simple knock will do just as well," Aster murmured. She stepped up and hissed at the door. { _I bid you, open.}_ Harry couldn't hide the wide eyes or slightly hanging mouth as the magical ethereal snake ran a quick circuit around the doorframe and faded into the woodwork with the door popping up. Aster turned to the group and stuck a hand on her hip. "What? Why is everyone so surprised? Voldemort is an arrogant tosser. When he made this he was probably convinced he was the only Parselmouth in all of Britain. The Chamber of Secrets is the exact same."

Tonks looked between Aster and the open door and sighed. "I'm starting to think all Parselmouths are full of themselves. Present company excepted of course."

Amelia and Sirius took the lead again as they all began to file into the shack. Once the group was inside Sirius said, " _Homenum revelio_."

"Wouldn't that have been more useful outside?" Jeanne asked.

"I'm not looking for people," Sirius explained casting the spell again as he turned to a different section of the house. "I'm looking for the Horcrux."

"Wait, _what_?!" Harry exclaimed. "You're telling me the presence revealing charm detects _Horcruxes_!?"

"Well, yeah," Sirius said dropping his wand with a frown and turning to glance at Harry. "They have part of a soul so they show up faint, but they show up. How the heck did you find them without using that?"

"Lots of luck apparently," Harry muttered. "I can't _believe_ we never thought of that. Hermione is going to go mental…"

Amelia shrugged and stepped around Sirius to head to the corner near the crumbling 'bedroom'. "Currently the point is moot as we're obviously not getting anything. Perhaps Riddle hid its presence as the Potter Cloak does."

Sirius' frown deepened. "I…doubt it. That Cloak is unique, Amy. Nothing gets through it. Ever. The only way Dumbledore was ever able to even have an idea James was around when after he added a strand to it himself and tagged _that_ with a locator beacon tuned to Albus himself. We never got the _Homenum_ to work through the Cloak itself."

"The Ring should be under this floorboard," Harry said brushing aside Sirius' concerns. He could afford to deal with telling them about the Deathly Hallows later. They had a Horcrux to destroy first. Amelia had just barely managed to get the indicated plank removed before Harry froze. There was an ornate box wedged under it between the flooring and the dirt. A box positively crawling with spectral images of snakes. "Nobody touch that box," he murmured.

Aster scowled and leant down. _{Your master bids you to release the treasure.}_ Again the snakes vanished into the wooden material though Harry did not release his Mage Sight. He nodded and Amelia carefully levitated the box out of the hole setting it down on the floor.

Another whispered spell later and the lid popped open revealing the Gaunt family heirloom in all of its glory. The Peverell Ring. The Resurrection Stone. Voldemort's second Horcrux. Or maybe his fourth? Either way it didn't matter. They had it. They had it and they could destroy it. Three down, four to go. Nagini was always with her master, Aster would hopefully be helped within the next few weeks, the Diadem was easy, so all they had to worry about now was the Cup…

"I don't see any indications of Parsel magic on this. It must have been laced onto the Box itself," Harry heard Amelia comment behind him. "Sirius, I've dispelled the withering curse. Sirius? Sirius, what's wrong? _Sirius_?!"

The increasing desperate tone in Amelia's voice pulled Harry from his trance and he hurriedly looked over his shoulder towards his godfather who had gone white as a sheet. "Sirius?" Harry croaked feeling a shiver of fear spike down his back.

"We have a problem…"

"Siri," Tonks asked stepping to his side and putting her hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I just tried the presence spell again…That ring…is _not_ a Horcrux."

* * *

Fic Recommendation: "Soul Scars" by Rtnwriter. This is a Harry/Hermione/Susan/Daphne story. Essentially Harry's soul splinters during the initial attack and the pieces establish a soul bond with Hermione, Susan and Daphne. In an interesting twist to the usual bond trope, the trio end up getting scars matching Harry's while the Dursleys are abusing him. It's very good receives fairly regular updates and is into Year Two.

Short shout out. "A Half Blood Prince Indeed" by vlad the inhaler. This is a Harry/Daphne oneshot set during Sixth Year. Harry argues with Hermione over the potions text and runs into Daphne while still riled up. It features a highly unique take on Daphne. Daphne as a complete ditz which poor Harry trying to determine if he's exceedingly lucky or a horrible person for taking advantage is very hilarious!


	6. Chapter 6: How Things Change…

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** I know this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but it seemed a good place to split this one off. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

 **CO AN:** No specific comments from RhysThornbery at this juncture beyond hoping that everyone enjoys this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: How Things Change…**

"It's not a Horcrux," Harry muttered again and again banged his head down onto the kitchen table. He utterly ignored the small whimper of protest from Hermione beside him. "It's. Not. A. Horcrux. Because _of course_ it's not a Horcrux. Fate has hated me my entire life. Every life. Six times now I've been her bloody chew toy – a cosmic plaything. Six times I died because of random _chance_. Last go round. Last chance. Last options to do things _right_. _Of course_ it _can't go right_!"

"Wasn't _I_ supposed to be the one wallowing in despair?" Aster muttered from her spot on the wall nearby. Harry pointedly ignored her and hit his head onto the table again.

"It's not a Horcrux. He didn't use the same ones. Two or three big changes, that's what you said. So _of course_ Fate would have to play merry hobb with the _Merlin-be-damned Horcruxes_."

Jeanne's hand fell gently onto his shoulder and squeezed lightly. Harry considered it a sign of just how frustrated with life he was at the moment that he didn't even react to her touch. Generally it was only Hermione that was able to touch him without his muscles at least stiffening for a moment. "Harry, you know things really could be a lot worse. They're obviously not all different. The group has already taken out the Locket and the Diary right? So really we just need to figure out why he replaced the Gaunt Ring with a different one and where he hid that instead."

"It took bloody years to find the originals. Decades if you count Fumblemore's lackadaisical efforts. It's not a _bloody Horcrux_." He groaned in thwarted frustration as he tried to hit the table again only for his forehead to slam against Hermione's hand. He heard a muffled grunt of pain from her and quickly lifted his head off her crushed fingers. "Sorry."

"That's enough!" Hermione bit out sharply. Her harsh tone had Harry's eyes immediately snapping fully open and focusing in on her. He winced and shied back slightly at the thunderous expression on her face. Angry Hermione was always rather frightening to _everyone_. Well...anyone with a sense of self-preservation that was. It was probably why she kept such a careful lid on her temper. Displays of rage and disturbing vindictiveness were far more effective when carefully meted out in small doses. "Harry James Potter, stop wallowing and get a grip on yourself. We are not powerless, and overly trusting preteens like last time! We are strong, confident individuals with equally strong allies and friends. We have a _good_ headstart and a _great_ advantage. Riddle has no idea we are hunting his artifacts and we still know that he has an unhealthy obsession with the founders. We were barely 17, fighting an entire country, and living in a crappy little _tent_ as _fugitives_ and we still managed to find the Horcruxes!" Hermione scowled and paused to take a semi-calming breath before continuing. "Now, look, we have highly placed family and friends searching with us. We have free rein to go wherever we want, whenever we want. We _will_ find the altered Horcruxes again. It is simply a matter of time! So please, stop your moping Harry Potter and get your head on straight! You roll with the punches and you make Fate's attempts to throw you a sucker punch turn into a ring out!"

Quiet descended for a few moments after Hermione's mini rant. It was finally broken by a stage whisper from Tonks. "Does anyone have any idea what she was just talking about at the end there?"

"It's Muggle stuff. She mixed her metaphors though; didn't quite work," Jeanne replied with a shrug. Harry didn't have to look up at his new friend to see the amused grin on her face.

"I am not a sports person," Hermione growled crossing her arms over her chest. "My points stand though. We will find whatever pieces of overly magical junk Voldemort used to house his soul this time. We'll just have to do a bit more legwork than we had expected."

Harry squeezed the bridge of his nose and slowly nodded. One day maybe he'd be able to figure out how his best friend could make a horrible, arse-end-up situation seem fairly straightforward. Maybe…A man could dream at least. "Sorry, Hermione. I'll try to look on the bright side if you agree to stop trying to use sports references."

Hermione's irritable grunt, narrowed eyes and flared nostrils proved she didn't particularly like his weak attempt at humor. "I believe I can accept that arrangement."

"Good, because I could really use that 'take charge, I've got everything figured out' pseudo-brother figure about now," Aster's murmur drifted across the room and Harry's head swiveled to focus on the other girl. "You just have to worry about the physical Horcruxes. I still have one in my head. Being able to look at you and see someone that made it through – despite a magical interaction that causes a page of arithmantic formula describing it to _literally melt the parchment_ – is somewhat comforting. You still lost overall, but you got the stupid Horcruxes and lived to tell the tale. Overly-Confident-Harry is good for my morale at the moment."

Harry blinked at Aster several times before finally marshaling his thoughts enough to reply. "Melt the parchment? What?"

"Really, that's what you focus on?" Aster muttered. Finally, she sighed and shook her head before shrugging. "I tried to do some quick calculations last night. I wanted to see if I could parse out some of the best chances for my survival. I used some of the variables you three had mentioned while explaining how you might have lived through being hit with a second AK. I have no idea how to accurately depict mythical objects of immense power in the Arithmancy, but considering my equations started to liquefy my papers when I had only tried to add in the soul shards, blood sharing, and brother wands I figured it didn't really matter."

Harry's mouth dropped open and his mind seemed to run completely blank. He could only stare at Aster before falling back into his seat with a heavy groan. Wiping a hand over his eyes, he shook his head. "You know enough Arithmancy to melt paper at 14. I was such a giant slacking git!"

"Stop putting yourself down, Harry. You're a young man; it's not that strange you took longer to get with the program than a young woman. It's perfectly normal for males to take a touch longer to mature. It took James almost five and a half years to mature enough for me to look twice at him, without wanting to bang my head on the table like you were a minute ago," Lily stated strolling into the kitchen. She ignored Shiva's skeptically raised eyebrows and proceeded to toss a light jacket to her son. "Put your coat on, we're going shopping."

"We're what?" Harry asked staring at the jacket dumbly.

"Shopping. You need clothes. Sirius' and James' old things aren't going to work much longer and they make you look like you're from the 70's anyway. And transfigured clothes are not a long term solution. Jeanne, you're welcome to come too if you want."

"Uh, Mum," Harry said scratching his head and frowning at the woman. "I think we have bigger concerns right now than what I'm wearing. We need to come up with a new plan, we need to figure out what Voldemort used for Horcruxes, we need to start researching, we need to – "

"And we can keep doing that when we get back. The others can get started on that now if they want," Lily commented calmly, cutting him off and slipping her shoes on. "Right now, _you_ need new clothes."

Harry gaped at her for a brief moment before turning to Shiva and gesturing towards Lily. "Help?"

Shiva chuckled, shaking her head. "Don't look at me kid. She's right, you need more to wear. It'll be a good break anyway."

"Aster, do you want to come as well?" Lily asked.

The raven-tressed girl shrugged. "I think I'll stick around here, Mum. I still need to finish off the History homework before classes start up again."

Hermione groaned. "Why do you always leave his work for last, Aster? Those are important lessons!"

"Binns teaches important lessons now?" Jeanne asked with raised eyebrows. "Man and I thought the Harry of this timeline being a girl was weird…"

"Oh. That's right. I completely forgot," Hermione's eyes widened and she grimaced. "Um, well you see, Binns doesn't teach History of Magic anymore. He was um…exorcised about a decade ago now. We err, have a different teacher. He's actually quite good at it."

Harry shrugged. "Well there goes the designated napping period. Hey, maybe we'll actually learn something besides goblins revolutions now!" He stood and slipped his coat on. "Jeanne were you coming?"

She shook her head. "I'll go another time. You should hang out with your mother, Harry."

"Sounds good to me!" Lily said smiling. She started to move towards the exit. "Ready, Harry?"

"Coming," he grumbled, shaking his head.

As Harry shuffled out of the room after Lily, Hermione grimaced and turned towards the Saint. "Do you think I should tell him that our History professor is Snape or should I just let him find out on his own?"

* * *

Harry's wide-eyed gaze roved around the Leaky Cauldron and he barely even noticed his dropped jaw. He felt like a zombie as he followed behind Lily towards the back. She waved at Tom and one or two patrons as they passed; the two of them only received grunts and polite nods in return. As they walked through the back door Lily tapped the bricks and turned to look at Harry, quirking a small grin. "Unusual to see people just being normal after so long fighting?"

"Nobody's mobbing me," Harry replied still looking back at the completely disinterested personnel inside the pub. "Not a single requested autograph. No one falling over themselves to shake my hand – or curse me out for some failing or another. No cries or exclamations. They barely even reacted to me at all. I'm…"

"Not Aster," Lily replied succinctly, gently squeezing his shoulder and turning him around. A soft push prodded him into the Alley proper and Harry could only nod dumb-struck in reply. "I understand. Aster _hates_ coming to this place because of just that reaction. I learned fast to start lightly glamouring her, but even then it didn't generally work so well. While magicals may not have much common sense we aren't stupid. Lily Potter walking around with a young girl…pretty much everyone is going to assume that's Aster no matter how she looks. Shiva was able to take her for shopping trips without reaction for awhile; though even that didn't last too long. I think we had about a year and a half before people realized that she and I were going to be a package deal and that it stood to reason Aster would be just as comfortable with her. Poor girl would probably be a hermit by now if I didn't let her wander around the Muggle world."

Harry swallowed hard. "Yeah, that sounds about right. That's almost worse than it was with me. I was eleven before it started happening and I never really had a set group I'd go shopping with. We never really thought to use glamours though until after Hogwarts." As they walked past Quality Quidditch Supplies he came to a dead stop and peered through the glass at the newest broom on display. "It's the Firebolt Mark 2!" Harry exclaimed. "I didn't even know they _had_ a Mark 2!"

Lily chuckled. "Just like your father."

"Merlin, I miss that broom."

"You had a Firebolt?" Lily's eyes widened ever so slightly. She did some quick math and had to hide her grimace. Even buying last year's model would probably necessitate selling the Picasso like Shiva had begged earlier. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility and she'd like to spoil him a bit, but…they were going to run low on paintings soon and Aster wouldn't be able to cash in on the royalties for the Linfred potions for another three years.

"McGonagall got me a Nimbus Two Thousand when she drafted me onto the team first year. The Whomping Willow destroyed it when I fell thanks to the Dementors in third year. Sirius sent me a Firebolt as a replacement. I didn't know it was from him at first though," Harry replied moving over slightly to better inspect the broom. "He never admitted it, but I'm pretty sure he felt guilty for me losing the Nimbus to begin with. The Dementors wouldn't have even been there if not for him. I never blamed him though – he didn't need to get me that thing. Wicked gift though. Kept it right up til about two months before the end. I lost it when Hermione and I were running from a Fiend Burst. We got out, the Firebolt didn't."

Lily clamped down hard on her emotions and forced her rising rage back down into a corner. She could get angry at Voldemort and his destruction of her son's life later. Right now, she had to remain focused on _Harry_. He needed this as much as she did. She could stay calm…For him. "Would you like to go in and look at it closer? We aren't exactly on a schedule you know."

Harry hesitated for a nearly ten seconds before shaking his head. "No, it's okay. I probably shouldn't. If we go in there I'm liable to spend all of our money on a broom. If there's anything left after restocking my wardrobe," he paused to shudder theatrically, "and getting school supplies I'll see if I can afford a Nimbus again. That was a really reliable broom and the Two Thousand and One was almost as good as a Firebolt if you knew what you were doing. Didn't compare speed-wise, but it was actually slightly more maneuverable."

"You really are just like James," Lily said ruffling his hair and smiling. Harry flashed her a grin back and the two stepped back from the shop. "Shall we get you a trunk first then? Alice's cousin runs that shop and I think we should be able to get something fairly nice at a steep discount. He's always saying he _still_ owes me for helping her fend off Bellatrix that night." Lily's eyes flashed as she remembered crashing through the hasty wards that Crouch Junior had thrown up around the house. They had been powerful – but nowhere _near_ powerful enough to keep her out.

Harry froze for a moment before catching back up to her. She shook her head as he fell back into step with her and she schooled her features back to neutral. "You fought off Bellatrix?! Wait, was that when the Longbottoms were attacked? After…err…after Voldemort came after you, Dad and Aster?"

"A few days later, yes," Lily replied quietly. "Let's not talk about the war, Harry. We're supposed to be having a pleasant day after all!"

"Right. Sorry, Mum," Harry said. His smile seemed genuine from what she could tell. She hoped it wouldn't take years to get the same sixth sense about him that she had about Aster. Harry was as much hers as her daughter was. It was important that she had a mother's intuition about the _both_ of them.

Barely ten minutes later they walked out of Carrying Cargos with the exact same model that she'd first gotten Aster. It wasn't top of the line, but it would shrink on command, had a mid-level expansion charm and decent security locking charms. She'd touch up the security spells with Shiva when they returned home. A quick trip through the astronomy equipment storefront saw that class covered and they nearly managed to make it through the apothecary before she was waylaid by the owner at the register.

"Professor Potter! I must say, my dear, I'm surprised to see you here doing the shopping again! Didn't you restock the school's shelves a week back?" Madam Jocasta asked. The older woman reached down to start unlocking some of the rarer ingredients.

"No, no, Helen," Lily quickly said waving her hands to try to stop the witch from grabbing the boomslang skin. "Hogwarts is fully stocked. I'm just taking Harry here to get some of his things before classes start up." She gestured to the boy next to her.

"Oh, well my apologies for presuming then." Madam Jocasta straightened and peered at Harry over her spectacles. Her eyes narrowed and she looked back at Lily. "Seems familiar…but I'm an old woman these days and _everyone_ seems familiar at some point or another. Muggleborn?"

"Halfblood technically, but yes he was raised by…Muggles." Lily couldn't help the slight raising of her lip into a half sneer as she thought of Petunia coming _near_ her son let alone _raising_ him. She felt her wand – safely ensconced in its wrist holster – spark for an instant and she desperately started to concentrate on the latest Quidditch statistics. France would probably have the first draft pick of the new crop next season after their early departure. Would Scotland or Norway be second though?

"Well, it's good to see Dumbledore has some sense in sending competent teachers to usher the new students around. You know he actually had Hagrid take one of the children two years back? Poor thing looked scared to death. I love the large man, but he's not very good at explaining why an eleven year old should be purchasing full newts instead of just the eyes…"

Harry stiffened beside her. "Just because Hagrid doesn't explain everything doesn't mean he's not a good guide. There's nobody better to show off the wonders of magic to someone new to it."

"Of course dear, I'm just saying that he's probably not the best person to take on a first shopping trip," Jocasta explained smiling.

Lily shook her head and stepped forward. "Be that as it may, Helen, would you mind ringing us up? We have a few other shops to hit up and I still need to get over to Malkin's."

"Of course, of course." As the woman turned back to her purchases, Lily noticed Harry kneeling down and frowning at one of the vials on the locked shelf. Jocasta handed over the ingredients and Lily quickly ushered them out into the street.

"Mum, we should pick up some basilisk venom. I know she doesn't have much but – "

"No need," Lily cut him off. "I have a _very_ healthy stock from the serpent in the Chamber."

Harry blinked and missed a step before chuckling. "Ah. Yeah, I guess that makes more sense. We really missed the ball on harvesting that thing first time around. So um, you teach at Hogwarts?"

"Hmm? Yes, I'm the Potions Mistress actually."

This time instead of missing a step Harry tripped and fell sprawling. Lily had to cover her mouth to hide her laughter as he scrambled back to his feet. " _Potions_?! You're _what_?!"

"I _am_ good at things besides offensive spell throwing you know." She lifted an eyebrow at him still trying to hold in her laughter.

"But, but, but… _Potions_! It's-everybody _hated_ Potions!"

Lily's laughter turned to snorts at that. "Well you must have had a rather horrible teacher then. Potions are quite interesting and a fair amount of fun as long as you're careful. And choose interesting potions to brew too of course."

"Yeah, our professor was right awful," Harry muttered scowling. He shook his head and the momentary hate she saw on his face disappeared. "Well congratulations, Mum. How long have you been a professor?"

Lily tapped her lip and shrugged. "About ten years now I guess. It was touch and go at the beginning and I almost got myself banned from the castle grounds, but we figured out a way to make it work."

"You…almost got banned…Wow. Sounds like there's a story there."

Lily grimaced. Her attempts to curse Severus into fine ash had led to three destroyed corridors, two caved-in classrooms, a now PTSD-afflicted House Elf and a newer – much smaller – pond next to the Black Lake. "Err – Perhaps another time," she ventured delicately.

" _Sure_ , ruin all my fun," Harry said sighing dramatically. He twisted slightly to the side throwing his hands into the air. A second later, his arms fell limply to his side and he gasped. Lily had barely enough time to register his mood swing before he had dashed away almost too fast for her to follow.

Lily hurriedly started to run after her son and was panting by the time she pushed through the door to the pet shop. Whatever could have had him so frantic as to sprint across half the alley like that?

"Hedwig…" Harry murmured. His voice was so soft Lily barely heard him. She leaned up against the closest rack to pull in some air and regain her breath as her son hesitantly stepped up to a pure white owl in the window of the shop. "Hey girl," he whispered holding out a shaking hand. "I know you don't remember me, but – "

"Brewk!" The owl barked and took wing settling immediately on Harry's shoulder before reaching down and lightly nipping at his ear. The grin spreading on Harry's face could have lit up half the island. He ran a far more confident hand down the owl's feathers receiving another satisfied sounding bark.

"Or maybe you _do_ remember me."

The owl rapped its beak on his head a few times and regarded him with a gaze that reminded Lily of an annoyed Shiva. How an _owl_ managed to pull off 'exasperated' and 'annoyingly amused' was a riddle which was probably not worth pondering.

"I'm sorry for presuming." The owl barked at Harry's comment and twisted its head to completely avoid his eyes. Harry chuckled and ran his hand down its feathers again. "Hey, if you're not going to fly to me immediately you can't expect me to come running to you either, Hedwig." The ruffled wings seemed to mean something to Harry though Lily was still hung up on the fact that the owl seemed to be actively yelling at her son…"Don't give me that attitude! I just jumped timelines with an Angel of Death, how was I possibly supposed to know that you cheated the Great Rookery In The Sky too, girl?"

The owl turned back to regard him for a long moment before bobbing its head up and down and shifting over just far enough to nip gently at his nose a few times. Harry laughed again and nodded. "Okay, apology accepted as long as you accept mine. Now let's go get you paid for and I'll show you the Manor in a bit. I'm sure Dobby will have some bacon and owl treats for you." A happy bark quickly followed that.

"You just had an entire conversation. With an _owl_ ," Lily breathed out. She knew her mouth was probably hanging open slightly, but couldn't really bring herself to care.

Harry shrugged. "Hedwig is a _very_ smart owl. Apparently she's smart enough to hitch herself onto whatever train brought me and Hermione here." He walked past Lily heading towards the counter and cooed to his new – old? – owl. "You know, girl, you're a bit scary sometimes. I rather doubt many owls could intimidate whatever deity rules over the owl afterlife into letting them come back with their human. Ow! What was that for?"

"Forget a broom," Lily muttered to herself watching the snowy owl with wide eyes. "That owl is worth a dozen Firebolts…"

* * *

"Yes, Mother," Draco Malfoy repeated tonelessly as his mother listed off yet another reason why he needed to cozy up to the Durmstrang students when they arrived at Hogwarts. It was always the same reasons. 'Useful alliances.' 'Important players.' 'Magically powerful.' 'Good breeding.' 'Excellent trading partners.' 'Encyclopedic Dark Arts knowledge.' While Draco fully appreciated the fundamental importance of all of those items, just _once_ he'd like to hear 'loyal' or 'friendly.' It would never happen though; not from Narcissa Malfoy, and _definitely_ not from Lucius Malfoy.

That was a hard truth that Draco was slowly starting to realize about his family: concepts like 'friendship' and 'love' did not enter into the equation at any point. Even Draco himself was less of a _son_ to his parents and more of a _tool_.

A rather useless tool at that if his showings in the past few years had been any indication. He could put down the Potters, the Longbottoms, the Weasleys and Granger until he was blue in the face, but none of his blustering and grandstanding changed the simple fact that every one of them was – and he was loath to admit this – _better_ than him. He was a Malfoy for Merlin's sake! He was descended from the purest of the pure! In the past four generations there had only been three Squibs in his family line!

And yet…even Neville was stronger and braver than Draco. Ginevra was quicker and wittier than Draco. Hermione was smarter and more intuitive than Draco. Aster was…Aster was more loved than Draco. She had a berserker she-demon for a mother, a somewhat absent-minded professor for a co-guardian and a broken extended family consumed only with her fame. She had barely any galleons to her name. She had a home filled with Muggle items. She had little-to-no political acumen. She had basically no cunning to speak of. She was constantly cleaning up her mother's mistakes. And yet…she was undeniably _loved_.

"Draco, are you listening? I have told you a thousand times, _Magic Most Darke_ is _the_ premier tome that Durmstrang uses. Do you have any idea how much your father had to pay to ensure that Borgin stocked this for us?" Narcissa scowled as she thrust the leather-bound book into his face.

Draco nodded back dutifully. "I understand, Mother. I will begin reading through it tonight to ensure I have talking points when my peers arrive."

"They are not your peers yet, but they _will_ be." Narcissa stated straightening back up, stuffing the book deep into her bag. It wouldn't be proper for the Malfoys to be seen with a Dark artifact – even a simple book – not when they were trying to project a 'changed' atmosphere about themselves. As his mother turned her back Draco scowled slightly. What use was there for a Ministry when anyone with sufficiently deep pockets could buy their way out of – or into for that matter – anything? They were _Wizards_! Weren't they supposed to be _better_ than the Muggles? Weren't they supposed to be smart enough to rise above such base things like bribery? To think, he used to be proud his father could solve any problem, only to learn that it really only amounted to the man slipping one greedy sod or another a bag full of coins to get what he wanted. Where was the cunning, the strategy, the _skill_ in that? Was that all that a good Slytherin was these days? A thug with a vault full of gold?

 _Thugs who get away with things like rape, torture and murder?_ a quiet part of Draco's mind whispered. He shuddered and clenched his fists. His mother may have tried to hide such things from him before, but now that the Dark Lord's power was starting to grow again, she was less careful than perhaps she should have been. Draco hadn't even _meant_ to overhear his father's meeting with Avery and Macnair. Now he couldn't stop thinking about how they had _bragged_ to each other about their latest conquests. Macnair's voice when the brute had started to describe the 'pretty little Mudblood bitch' he had assaulted had set Draco's stomach churning. _You threatened Aster with that once last year_ , a nasty little voice in the back of his head reminded him. Draco shook his head in disgust and clenched his fist tighter. He didn't want to think of that. He _couldn't_ think of that. Too many things were wrong in the world at the moment to start down that path. It had been the boasting and bluster of a petulant teen who hadn't really understood – in the truest sense – what it was he was threatening.

"Potter, such a surprise to see you out and about." His mother's drawled comment immediately drew Draco's attention back to the present. Glancing up, he saw Lily Potter coming to a stop in front of them with a teenager and a white owl pulling up beside her. "Such a shame that your… _condition_ prevents these regular strolls." Draco winced at his mother's jibe as much as at the tone in which she said it. The look of loathing mixed with pity that flitted across the other teen's face was almost a perfect mirror for Draco's own internal thoughts at that point.

"I see you're taking your own weekly waltz through the sun, Malfoy," Lily replied casually. "Funny, I thought that vampires have to travel by night…?" The waved hand from the Potter matriarch seemed nonchalant but Draco didn't miss the tiny beads of blood perfectly spaced to have been caused by clenched fingernails.

"Stooping to the half-breed remarks now, Potter?" Narcissa said with a laugh. Draco easily caught the strain in his mother's reply. Both women were just as close to cursing each other and neither was willing to admit it. He scowled and glared at the ground.

"Well if the coffin fits…"

Draco couldn't take this any longer. What was the point to all his mother's posturing? If Professor Potter snapped here and now, his mother would die, plain and simple. Possibly taking him with her. And when Lily Potter was carted off to Azkaban afterwards Aster's home life would devolve into the hell that he was already living. No one should have to live without parents that loved them. "Are you showing a new student around today, Lady Potter?" he asked. All eyes turned to him, but Draco only met the eyes of the woman ahead of him.

Lily frowned slightly for a few moments with thin, almost bloodless lips. Eventually she nodded curtly. "Yes. You could say that. Draco Malfoy, this is Harry. You two will soon be classmates."

"Pleasure," the other boy said. Draco had been around purebloods enough to recognize the carefully neutral and guarded tone. He slowly held out his hand towards Draco. Draco let out a small, barely registered, sigh and shook the teen's hand. They had only touched for a brief moment before Harry withdrawn.

"Likewise. Mother, we should be getting back. It was nice to see you, Lady Potter, Harry. I wish you a pleasant trip and a safe journey." Without waiting for a response, Draco turned and strode back down the street towards the Cauldron. He knew his mother would follow him. She always did; just like she followed his father wherever the man led. She was a born sycophant and lickspittle through and through. Perhaps it was how the infamous Black madness manifested in her?

Was he really any better, he wondered? Treated as he was by his parents, like a bargaining chip, a marriageable stud, a tool…a follower. He was destined to kiss the heels of those above him. He'd been trained since before he could remember to grovel at the feet of a madman who would tear their world apart on a whim to see himself at the top of the refuse heap. How could he fault his mother for doing the same to those she perceived as her betters?

"What's changed?" Draco murmured to himself. He dimly heard his mother berating him for something or other, but he had tuned her out.

 _Aster's family may be somewhat broken, but they're happy. They have next to nothing and consort with 'scum' and 'Blood Traitors,' but at least they're happy. They're strong, happy, loyal and loved._ Draco shook himself and tried to set his features into a proper scowl as they reached the Apparition point. It wouldn't due for his father to start questioning why he was _thinking_ upon returning from a meeting with the Berserker.

Perhaps…perhaps it was time to consider how the other half lived. Maybe – just _maybe_ – he wasn't fated to become his father. Maybe he could become something…better; his own man perhaps? Did he dare to dream of that?

Was such a thing even _possible_?

* * *

Jeanne grimaced as she sorted another one of the books she'd grabbed from the Potter library into the 'useless' pile. Hermione and Susan were ensconced in the library proper with Shiva while Jeanne had grabbed a few books of her own and moved to the living room. Sirius and Amelia had returned to their own home in order to check the Black library. Personally, Jeanne wasn't holding out much hope of finding anything useful from either collection. Myths and reports of Founder artifacts would be more likely to pop up in the actual Hogwarts library. They'd probably also have a decent amount of luck simply talking with a historian. Maybe it was worth a trip over to see Bathilda Bagshot?

"Sooooo…" Tonks said, walking up and drawing the word out long enough that Jeanne would have had to be deaf to miss the hesitation. The pink-haired young Auror dropped into the seat next to her and Jeanne leant back raising an eyebrow. "You're really Jeanne d'Arc?"

"Yeesss," Jeanne replied fishing for just what had the perky woman so timid all of a sudden.

"The Saint?"

Jeanne sighed. "I've been trying to get people to _stop_ calling me that, but yes." She picked at the collar of her shirt absently and shrugged. "To me that title is rather like Harry – well, like _Aster_ I guess – with The-Girl-Who-Lived thing."

Tonks nodded hurriedly and a light shade of white crept into her hair, a small embarrassed blush coloring her cheeks. "Right. Sorry about that, I'll avoid it in the future, promise. So, you're _really_ the Jeanne d'Arc though right? The general?"

Jeanne's eyebrows rose a bit higher and she had to fight down a laugh. Perhaps she had hit a bit closer to the truth than she'd expected by drawing a comparison to Aster Potter. Was Tonks _star struck_? "There were other generals, but yes, that was one of my roles in the army."

"And you wore men's clothes and kept your hair short?" Tonks' nervous edge had vanished and she was practically quivering in her seat as her confidence – and excitement – grew.

"To be fair, the clothes were more of a practical thing at the time. I've gotten used to it since then, but for that period it was far easier to have people think you an androgynous boy than a warrior woman. Granted, being one of the prominent leaders in the army did rather put a crimp in that plan, but the point stands."

Tonks nodded and her hair lost all of the lighter shade turning to a deep pink. "Cool. Practical and _awesome_. You know, it's a bit embarrassing but…" she paused and leant closer to whisper conspiratorially, "you were kinda my role model when I was growing up!"

A grin spread across Jeanne's face. Score one for intuition. She still had it. "I would _never_ have guessed," she drawled, her smile taking any condemnation from the phrase. Tonks blushed, though the rosy glow left her cheeks so swiftly the metamorphmagus had to have actively engaged her abilities. "Certainly there were better idols than a foolish girl who got herself burned at the stake before she hit twenty though?"

"Are you kidding?!" Tonks blurted out her eyes widening comically. "You were a girl going to _war_! A _farm girl_. You had people who followed you, and trusted you, and believed in you. You were killed for being a _witch_ and a heretic and they _still_ made you into a holy person! You kicked down like _every_ barrier that was supposed to be standing in front of you and you weren't even trying. You knew what you had to do and you _did_ it."

Tonks pulled back and started talking so fast that Jeanne was tempted to cut in and tell the woman to slow down and breathe before she passed out. "All my life people tried to force me into whatever perfect little box they imagined for me. I was going to be their toy, their plaything, their little model. My parents, family friends and my few non-crazy relatives were the only ones really who tried to convince me I could do what I wanted. _But_ I never really believed them for _ages_! I mean, I could change to be anyone I wanted right? So it only made sense for me to do that. To be the chameleon and change for the people around me. To fit into that box and switch into whomever the flavor of the week wanted. It made _sense_ because it fit my powers. It was what I thought the world wanted of me right, so it was what I should do as I got older right?"

Jeanne frowned and reached over to pat Tonks' leg. "That…doesn't sound like a healthy attitude to take, Tonks."

Tonks shook her head and smiled wide. "Tell me about it! I was young and stupid and I didn't know any better. But then I read about _you_. You were a girl growing up in the Middle Ages. You should've just been a wife to some lucky guy. Or maybe gone to a Convent or something when you started having visions."

"Divination and some latent sporadic Seer abilities," Jeanne murmured. "Not really visions, but it was easier to pass off as something God-given than explain to my parents why I could see when we needed to start planting."

"Doesn't matter, you were still locked into clear acceptable paths. But. You. Didn't. Do. That. You joined the bloody _army_! You said 'jump' and people asked 'how high'. You inspired an entire _nation_ , Jeanne! I gobbled that moral up. I realized that if someone from the 1400s could deny her society's expectations and become what she wanted – what she _needed_ – to be, well then _I_ should be able to do whatever the hell _I_ wanted to do too!" Tonks exclaimed and started waving her hands towards her hair. "Heck I crafted my image after you actually. My mum is convinced that I keep my hair short to annoy her 'cause the Blacks have traditionally had long flowy hair and shite, but she's wrong. I keep my hair short 'cause it's a constant reminder that I don't _have_ to be the chameleon. I can be _me_ just like _you_ were _you_!"

Jeanne's eyes were wide as saucers by the end of Tonks' speech. She took a deep, calming breath attempting to gather her thoughts, before she slowly replied. "I'm honored that you think that way about me, Tonks. I never really meant to inspire people back then…I just wanted to help my country as much as I could. Even then I didn't always help. I mean, I _did_ unintentionally attract that freaking lunatic Gilles de Rais to the cause and we all know how _that_ turned out. It was _hard_ pushing through the prejudice – no question – but it was worth it in the end. Even with how things ended it was worth it I think. Keep doing what you're doing. Don't let anyone dictate who or what you should be. Do what you feel is right."

"Exactly." Tonks' grin widened. She bobbed her head hard enough that her hair bounced. "That's the plan! I can't believe I'm actually meeting you in person! This is bloody insane." She cut short and tapped a finger on her chin before bursting out in a hearty laugh. "Though, I do surround myself by Blacks, Bones and Potters so I suppose I should have expected something like this! These families draw crazy to them like bees to honey!"

Jeanne rolled her eyes at that as her mind cast to the myriad incidents that had repeatedly sent one Harry James Potter to her office over the past years. Increasingly unlikely incidents that usually left the Potter scion in some varying state of messy disorder. "On that we can fully agree."

"So I have to ask," Tonks said, her voice dropping back to conspiratorial whispers.

"Ask what?" Jeanne replied in the same tone unable – and unwilling – to stop the infectious mirth radiating from the other woman from spreading.

"Got any fun blackmail material on Hermione? That girl likes to pretend she's squeaky clean, but I just _know_ I can find _something_ to lord over her one of these days…"

Jeanne chuckled and nodded in reply. "Let me tell you about a time that she set a teacher on fire…"

* * *

Fic Recommendation: "A Champion's New Hope" by Rocag. This is a Harry/Daphne story set during Fourth Year. In it Hermione initially doesn't believe Harry about the Tournament and Harry ends up turning to Daphne for assistance before patching things back up. As a result things begin to snowball. No real bashing of anyone for the most part and Neville plays a large role as well. It's very good and even better, it's complete!


	7. Chapter 7: Not So Small Changes

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. If I did I would be a far richer man. And I'd be a woman. I also don't own anything related to the Fate/(anything) series because then I'd be able to speak fluent Japanese.

Reviews are appreciated but certainly not required.

 **AN:** Wow it's been awhile…Sorry this took so long to update everyone! So fair warning about this chapter, towards the end we get the 'official' story for Harry's existence. It is convoluted in the extreme. If this greatly annoys you, just a friendly reminder to go back to Chapter 4. Almost all of the main characters complain about it in universe as well. Lily herself is almost as much of an obstacle to the Good Guys as the Bad Guys are in this fic. Please keep that in mind as things progress forward.

 **CO AN:** No specific comments from RhysThornbery at this juncture beyond hoping that everyone enjoys this chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Not So Small Changes**

"So why exactly are we in Japan again? I thought that we would've started off with these ley line convergence trap things in England," Tonks said walking backwards next to Jeanne and gaping at the cherry blossom trees lining the path with Mt. Fuji in the distance. "These blooms should've died off months ago…" she murmured running one hand along an overhanging rosette blossom.

"Magical district," Jeanne commented shrugging. She reached over and gently nudged Tonks to the side so that the younger woman avoided knocking into a teenager who had stopped to sketch the trees. "The folks here _really_ enjoy their country's staples. Keeping them in bloom year round is supposed to be some sort of summer project for the Mahoutokoro kids. At least that's what it was in original version of things. Maybe…It's been a few years since I checked in on Japan."

"Bugger, all I ever got was essays on random historical battles and more transfiguration papers than I could shake a stick at."

"They also ride giant storm petrels to school if they're not boarding there. I'll take the train you guys used thank you," Jeanne said shuddering slightly.

Tonks chuckled and smirked at her companion. "Not a fan of heights, eh?"

" _Some_ of us were born _before_ insane inventions like airplanes, helicopters, brooms and flying carpets. I'll keep my feet solidly on the ground thank you very much. How Harry managed to survive as long as he did while constantly biting his thumb at gravity will forever boggle my mind."

Tonks started snickering. Sure enough though, a few moments later, her attention was so hopelessly diverted from her path that when her feet struck a slightly uneven section her leg flew out from under her. Pinwheeling her arms, Tonks fell backwards letting out a shout of surprise – her fall towards the hard ground stopped only by a leather boot under her back which just barely managed to halt her momentum. Tonks blushed crimson as Jeanne levered her back up to a standing position.

"Maybe start walking _forward_ now?" Jeanne asked rolling her eyes and chuckling. "You're clumsy enough as it is, Tonks."

"Sorry…" She swiftly shook her head and used her abilities to force the blush down. "So are we almost there?"

"Oh yes, nice segue there," Jeanne said laughing harder. She wiped at her eyes and gestured to a break in the trees. The metamorph stepped through the cherry blossoms and walked towards a small koi pond a hundred feet beyond. "To answer your question, yes, we are."

"And _why_ exactly are we here again?"

Jeanne sighed and cast a critical gaze at her companion. "You didn't seriously forget that we're shutting down Riddle's ability to trap this ley line conduit did you?"

Tonks snorted and let her hair flash to orange for a brief moment before schooling it back to neutral pink. "Of course I didn't forget that. I meant, 'what are you and I doing here'. As in why aren't Harry and Hermione here and what am _I_ even doing remotely near this job. Also, Stonehenge was like right around corner."

"Ah, you see, you should've led with that question," Jeanne teased smiling. "Harry would be useless here. He was always just the bodyguard; Hermione did the work on desynchronizing the runic traps. She and I are probably two of the only people who'll be able to layer these convergence zones with our own counter-traps for a few months while we train a few others. The required sigil is pretty advanced and intricate – also, I'm fairly certain the brunette invented a new form of magic when she created it. I'm sure that Babbling will be able to pick it up, but it'll take her a while. Besides, school is starting soon; the others can't skip off on the first day, Tonks."

Tonks frowned in mild confusion. "So what, I'm supposed to learn super hard runic spells now? I'm awesome with transfiguration and really good with charms, but runes isn't my thing, Jeanne."

"Tonks, what's your job?" Jeanne asked idly as she circled the koi pond counting off paces. "From Amelia, I mean."

"Err, to watch you and learn all there is to know. She really didn't pick the best person for this sort of thing if I'm supposed to be learning runes."

Jeanne stopped in her walk and turned to regard Tonks. She was silent for a good ten seconds before chuckling and nodding. "Yeah, she really did choose poorly in that case. Dora, she meant for you to watch me and report back anything I did that set off alarm bells. She doesn't trust me, not completely. She doesn't trust Harry either for that matter."

"Wait, what?" Tonks frowned and thought back to when Amelia had pulled her to the side before they set off and ran through the scene in her head again. Scowling she kicked at a clump of dirt. "Son of a…Well bugger that shite! If she expects me to spy on my role model she's as insane as my relatives."

"Which one?" Jeanne asked smirking.

Tonks snorted and shook her head. "Take your pick, they're all crazy. Bellatrix doesn't need an introduction; Narcissa voluntary sleeps with a Malfoy; mum will give you a cup of tea while casually discussing hiding bodies; Alice stays at a manor with the Dowager Longbottom; Lily is a berserker when you get her fired up; Sirius thinks a prank war is a perfectly legit response to a spilled drink. Bloody insane, the lot of them."

"Well when you put it that way," Jeanne smirked again and resumed her pacing. "To be fair, she has a point. Harry and I have a rather fantastical story – one that can't be easily verified – and we're somewhat unproven allies currently. I imagine the only reason why we weren't given veritaserum interrogations were thanks to the Potters and Hermione. Amelia probably expected you to get her meaning without having to spell it out. You _are_ an Auror after all."

Tonks made a raspberry sound, shaking her head. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Tonks waved away the comment. "I'm going to be on Tournament guard duty soon anyway. You're coming to that too aren't you? Great, I'm supposed to be spying on you then too aren't I?"

"I prefer to think of it as 'ensuring I'm legitimate' rather than spying. She means well, Tonks. Ah, here we go!" Stopping Jeanne drew her wand and started sketching intricate floating runes. As each design completed, it flashed and floated down to settle into the bottom of the koi pond, startling the fish along the way, before vanishing under the gravel bed. Tonks fell silent watching her friend work and marveling at the beauty of the display. It was nearly fifteen minutes later before a slightly sweaty Jeanne dropped her wand at the final runic flash and laid her hands on her knees panting.

"Man that's a lot of work," Jeanne wheezed out. "I need to get back in shape. Color me impressed, Granger; here I was thinking just Harry was the powerhouse. Anyway, yeah, Tonks, I'm an 'executive foreign consultant' according to Sirius. Whatever the heck that means. Even if it wasn't official I'd be hanging around the school anyway. I need to be close in case the 'lovable idiot' decides to go all noble-martyr on us again…as per usual."

Tonks frowned. She moved to help Jeanne stand up straight and held the brunette's eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"We told you the Tournament's likely going to be rigged somehow. Harry and Hermione have something they've been keeping under their sleeves from us. I don't know what it is, and I don't think I want to know. He's going to do something incredibly stupid and he doesn't have any retries left. Thank god we know the general progress of the thing…"

Tonks felt her hair shift to her Black curls, but couldn't bring herself to change it. "I thought that when we cleared Moody last week we were safe…Shite, it's never that easy is it? You think Crouch went for someone else?"

"Either him or Bellatrix or both. Pettigrew was a horrible servant for Riddle – Bellatrix is a fairly decent one. She's not stellar since she's bloodthirsty and insane, but unlike the rat she is competent. Barty is both competent and _focused_. He's not a loose cannon like Bella can be. They'll get in and sabotage the thing."

"Well," Tonks said setting her stance and nodding her head. "We'll just all have to stop them then."

Jeanne smiled reaching over to squeeze Tonks' shoulder. "That we will. But first, to Peru for the next ley line!"

As Jeanne turned to walk back to the path Tonks smirked and playfully punched the older woman's shoulder. "You still haven't told me why we didn't go to the close ones first."

Jeanne grimaced and squeezed the bridge of her nose. "Honestly? I just wanted to make absolutely darn sure that we knocked this one out before everything inevitably goes to hell. Trust me, you _don't_ want to try to seal this confluence point with freaking Godzilla breathing down your neck!"

Tonks stopped and gaped at her companion's back as Jeanne kept walking. It took nearly ten seconds before Tonks could pick her jaw back up and run after the woman, yelling. "Wait! You can't just throw that out there and not explain! _Jeanne_ , details you bloody barmy Frenchwoman! _Details_!"

* * *

"You know," Harry mumbled as he stared out the train's window, his head comfortably resting against Hermione's shoulder, "I forgot just how nice it was to ride on the Express."

Hermione made a soft sound of agreement and continued to run one hand through his messy hair while her other one tightened on his waist. "I quite agree."

"Ugh, do you two have to be _sooo_ cutesy?" Aster groaned from the seat across the booth. She let out a mock gagging noise and twisted to Ginny. "Thank your lucky stars you aren't dating yet, Ginny."

Ginny frowned. "Uh, weren't you just complaining a week ago about not being able to fawn all over – "

"Neville!" Aster yelled immediately switching focus and cutting off Ginny. The other occupants of the cabin chuckled at Aster's rather blatant misdirection. Apparently some constants were immutable enough to transcend timelines. "So how's that new girlfriend you've been so secretive about? I mean, you've been skirting around it so much I'm starting to think she's made up to make me jealous or something."

"Yeah, Aster, cause we both know how well that would work," Neville commented rolling his eyes. "Just because I had a crush on you for a while doesn't mean I can't face reality."

"I'm glad that you finally wised up to it, Neville. Anybody could see Aster mooning over Hermione for ages if they'd bothered to look," Ginny teased laughing at the two.

"I did not _moon_ ," Aster protested crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Ginny.

The redhead just grinned wider and shrugged. "Whatever you say, sweetie." Out of all of the people Harry had met in this changed reality Ginny was tied for most 'different'. Between her and Susan he could barely even recognize either one of them! "Now let's focus on the most important thing here!"

"And just what is most important, Ginny?" Harry asked.

"Well, I would say the _most_ important thing is to find someone who cares for you as much as you care for them. The second most important thing would be to find something you love doing." Ginny paused and her flippancy vanished in an instant, her shoulders tensing and her eyes narrowing. Ginny's gaze fixed him with a stare that left Harry feeling like fidgeting. "Understanding just how Hermione could become so deeply attached to a relative stranger so quickly is a close third. Especially when said stranger has the same eyes as Aster's mum."

"Err…" he said eloquently.

Hermione however simply shrugged and smiled towards the Ginny. "Well the full specifics are a bit of a secret. However, like Aster and I said earlier, Harry is family. I can be relaxed around family."

"You abuse that term almost as much as the Blacks," Ginny complained shaking her head. She sighed and then rolled her eyes throwing her hands up in surrender. "Granted, I'm not really one to talk considering that the Weasley clan is right up there with them. Minus Percy of course – but he's just a git and every family has to have one bad egg!" That sent another round of chuckles through the group.

"I _really_ missed this," Harry murmured, just soft enough his voice only carried to Hermione's ears. She squeezed him harder in reply.

The group chatted for most of the remainder of the train ride until there was a soft knock on the compartment door. Aster grunted, the sound striking a chord in Harry. He recognized it as an annoyed yet resigned, noncommittal grunt he tended to use whenever Hermione managed to bully him into studying…"Draco," Aster said as she pulled open the door.

Harry blinked up in surprise. Draco Malfoy had actually _knocked_ instead of barging in! And he wasn't flanked by his two gorillas, but instead by Blaise Zabini of all people. Granted Draco had been civil when they had met in Diagon Alley, but this was far too weird to make any sort of sense. Harry was still trying to process this altered Malfoy when the blond boy spoke. "Hello, Aster. I know we haven't exactly been the best of acquaintances lately…"

"Well that's one way to put it," Aster scoffed. She leaned against the door frame and cocked her head to the side staring at him. "Look Draco, we may not exactly be enemies, but you're only the barest step shy of it. If I hadn't known you were just running your mouth off like usual last year and actually _meant_ your bluster then we would be enemies. So what; are you actually apologizing?"

Draco grimaced and nodded. "I am. I was arrogant and you had done nothing to warrant my provocation. I am sorry."

Harry leaned forwards focusing fully on Draco. The Slytherin was tense and his eyes were downcast. Both hands were loose and his breathing was regular if strained somewhat. Harry blinked repeatedly and had to restrain himself from gaping. Draco Malfoy was actually legitimately apologizing!

Aster remained silent for long enough to cause the blond to fidget before she sighed and nodded. "Apology accepted. I have enough enemies as it is. Why is Blaise here?"

"Unified front," the tall, black boy said shrugging. "Not everyone in our House is looking forward to 'the good old days' as Flint called them. My mum's insane enough as it is, lord only knows how bad she'd get if the Dark started to take over. I'm here to help legitimize him," Blaise threw a thumb towards Draco who just glared back at him. "Little Malfoy has finally realized his family is as screwed up as mine."

"If you're not going to shut up, then go back to the compartment," Draco grunted.

Blaise just laughed and sauntered past his apparent friend. "Man, if you wanted a strong silent type, go back to the Idiot 1 and Idiot 2. Later, Potter."

Draco muttered something under his breath as Blaise left, then sighed. Shaking his head he turned back to Aster. "Before I go, have you…Have you heard anything from Lovegood?"

"Luna?" Aster asked pulling back finally standing up straight. "Why do you care about Luna?"

"It's complicated," Draco hedged kicking his foot against a loose section of carpet. "I overheard some things this summer and I just wanted to make sure she was okay after the Chamber of Secrets thing."

Ginny stood and moved to Aster's side frowning at the blond. "She's fine. She's practically royalty in Beauxbatons."

"Really?" Draco looked up, his mouth falling open at that tidbit. Harry felt his own body echoing Draco's reactions. "Loony Lovegood is queen of the French?"

Aster groaned and rubbed her forehead. "See, it's reactions like that that stop us from being friends, Draco. And she's known as Lucky Luna there. You want to turn over a new leaf and away from your evil parents, great. Prove it and we'll keep talking."

"Evil?! My father will hear about this!" the familiar epithet was spoiled by the grin on Draco's face.

Aster just rolled her eyes and moved back into the compartment. "Goodbye, Draco."

"Aster." The door closed on a half-hearted nod from the Slytherin and Aster and Ginny retook their seats.

"Well that was surreal," Harry said quietly, still staring at the door.

"I told you he wasn't that bad here," Hermione replied lightly pushing Harry's shoulder.

"What did he mean by Luna being in the Chamber?" Harry murmured, leaning into her. "Did she take Ron's place in this world?"

Hermione grimaced. "Ginny's actually." Harry twisted to look at her quickly enough that his neck cracked. "Yes, I know. She was okay afterwards though she did transfer to Beauxbatons. Considering how popular she became over there, there are some rumors here that she set things up intentionally just to get away from Hogwarts. I don't believe them personally."

"Wow…" Harry whispered shaking his head. "Two or three small changes my arse."

"Language, Harry," Hermione replied chuckling and bumping his shoulder again as Hogsmeade rolled into view out the window.

* * *

As the main student body filed into the Great Hall, Harry hung back to speak with Shiva at the entrance. Most of the students had walked inside as Harry turned to his mother's partner. "So you're my escort huh?"

Shiva snorted and rolled her eyes. "We figured there'd be fewer immediate questions if I was the one walking you over to McGonagall. You know you could've just hopped onto the boats."

"And scare the firsties?" Harry replied grinning.

"Hardy, har har. Come on twerp, let's get you to the Sorting before the Hat is brought out."

"You wound me, Shiva," Harry said clutching his heart.

Shiva just chuckled and waved him forward into the side corridor with the first year students. There was one that had a 'freshly spelled' look with poofy hair and fluffed clothes. Harry grinned as he thought back to Neville falling into the lake; this poor sod had seemingly followed in his old friend's footsteps.

McGonagall had just finished walking the students through the coming event as Harry and Shiva came to a stop at the back of the line. McGonagall frowned as she looked him over. "Professor Babbling, is this the new transfer student that your partner owled me about?"

"Yup, this is Harry. Say hi to Professor McGonagall, Harry."

Harry briefly considered having some fun with this version of another of his old colleagues. That moment of Weasley Twin Inspiration quickly passed at the shuddering thought of detention on the first day. "Hello, Professor. I apologize in advance for the upcoming spectacle."

McGonagall snorted and he caught the small twitch in her lips that was as close as the woman ever let herself get to smiling around new students. "Well if the big secret is what I suspect you can hardly be faulted for it Mr. …"

Shiva chuckled and patted Harry on the shoulder. "Let's just stick with 'Harry' for the moment, Min. Like the kid said, spectacle and all. I look forward to the fireworks at the Sorting."

McGonagall inclined her head. "As do I." Turning to the rest of the children she clapped twice and started walking towards the side door to the Great Hall. "Come along everyone, come along."

A few surreptitious young eyes glanced at Harry though most were far too preoccupied with their own impending Sorting to spare him much notice. Harry waved goodbye to Shiva and walked after the others as the older woman slipped away back to the Staff's table. As the group trooped into the Great Hall a smile crossed Harry's face wide enough to stretch from ear to ear. It really had been too long since he'd seen the place intact. The castle had been long abandoned by the time he and Hermione had tried to stop the Fiend Burst from building over it.

If he knew his friend, she'd likely have the Ley Line sealed and safeguarded before the evening was over, making absolutely certain that particular future catastrophe never happened.

Harry was so lost in his recollections that he only noticed the completion of the firsties' Sorting when Dumbledore stood and clapped. "Yes, congratulations to all of our new students! However, as many of you have probably noticed, we do have one additional Sorting to conduct tonight before we can all eat. Allow me to introduce our new transfer student! He will be entering into the Fourth Year and I ask that everyone provide him with a warm welcome to Hogwarts and all of the glorious opportunities and history that our great institution has to offer!"

Harry chuckled softly at that. "Laying it on a little thick, Professor," he murmured to himself. Glancing at the rest of the staff, Harry saw his mother grinning broadly back at him along with Shiva on her right. Flitwick had his head cocked to the side. Amusingly enough, Sprout and Trelawney both seemed completely oblivious to his existence and were staring off blankly into the distance. His gaze passed over Snape three times before he recognized the man and when he did Harry rocked back onto his heels only barely stopping his mouth from falling open.

Gone was the greasy haired bat and in his place sat a nearly _jolly_ individual robed in bright green with silver linings. Snape had apparently managed to find something to use for hygiene as his hair was almost…silky. He was even _smiling_! The man's eyes briefly met Harry's and a small frown crossed his features for a moment before he shook his head and started chuckling along with something that Vector was whispering to him.

"…Without further ado, if you would please step forward to be Sorted, Mr. Potter."

The immediate gasp and silence followed by a flurry of whispering quickly brought Harry out of his shock. He shook his head and nodded to the Headmaster before stepping forward to sit down on the stool. Professor McGonagall paused for a moment as she raised the Hat over him. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Mr. Potter, eh? Please don't be afraid to buck tradition. We have enough rabble-rousers amongst your family as it is, young man." She winked at him and Harry smiled in response.

"No promises, Ma'am. From what I understand, it runs in the family."

"Sadly I find myself agreeing with you," she heaved a heavy sigh though the amusement in her tone belied her feelings on the matter. Without further ado Harry felt the Sorting Hat settle onto his head and the familiar feeling of its soft whisper in his mind.

 _Hmm, interesting,_ very _interesting! It's not often I find myself Sorting one that I've already Sorted before! Hello again, Harry Potter and welcome back._

"Err, thanks?" Harry murmured back. He had been harboring a vague hope that Occlumency would shield some of the weirder aspects of his arrival from the Hat, but it seemed that was a ship that had sank before even setting sail.

 _You know I've encountered several prospective students who had been Reset prior to coming to me – not many mind you, fair few find their lives so utterly devoid of luck that they require a Reset before 11 – though you seem even more extreme. I must say, six deaths, young man? My, my. Well, hopefully we can avoid all that fuss with your sister!_

"Yeah, that's the plan," Harry replied grimacing. It was one thing for Jeanne or Hermione to tease him about his horrific luck and blatant stupidity; it was quite another for a piece of fabric to do it. "So if we could get on with this and just put me back into Gryffindor so I can watch her back it would appreciated."

 _Whoever said I would be putting you back into the same House? Why would you assume that?_

Harry drew a sharp breath and scowled as he glared at the brim of the Hat. "Because I'm a bloody Gryffindor!"

 _You_ were _a Gryffindor. In a timeline that has been erased. Now I will grant you, you still have a high affinity for the House. And in any case, we can certainly rule out Ravenclaw. Helena would have ripped me to shreds if I tossed you in there considering your study habits!_

"I chose my House before, I can choose it again," he growled gritting his teeth.

 _Sure, sure. Now let's see. Hmm, you're certainly loyal enough to make Helga proud. It's to a fairly limited group though so probably not the best option._

"Don't you dare. Don't you bloody well dare."

 _It seems I previously stated you'd do well in Slytherin. I fully stand by my other incarnation. Though we now have even more factors to consider…After all, with Tom Riddle on the rise again, that House has grown to be a pale shadow of what Salazar intended it as. Bigots and fools rule that House these days and I can't even send new students to it without considering if they could survive the experience first. You…you could be the answer._

"I'm. A. _Gryffindor_." Harry's hands were clenched hard enough against the stool it was a wonder it wasn't cracking.

 _I expect your help here, Mr. Potter. Hogwarts has need of you. Your home needs to have the dust bin taken out and beaten clean. You will be a basilisk amongst the garden snakes. Make both Salazar and Godric proud!_

"I hate you…"

 _Good luck to you, Harry Potter! Good luck in_ "SLYTHERIN!" Harry stood, taking the Sorting Hat off his head and glaring at the smug looking grin in the fabric before tossing it to McGonagall. There was near utter silence in the Great Hall as he took a deep breath and schooled his features into a pleasant mask. Outwardly calm and collected Harry started his walk to the Slytherins' doom.

Catching sight of Hermione thumping her head into the Gryffindor table did manage to bring a small smile to his face. A smile that only served to chill the hearts of any Slytherin unlucky enough to catch sight of it.

* * *

Lily had barely been able to put her napkin down after the meal ended before she was accosted by Dumbledore with a polite – yet firm – demand to meet with him in his office. Lily managed to prevent her usual response to the old man's 'requests' and instead of snapping at him or cursing, she politely nodded and indicated she'd be up in a moment. Dumbledore smiled and moved off, Flitwick quickly taking his place.

"Lily, Shiva, such a please to see you both again after the summer break!" her diminutive friend's smile was far more genuine and she greatly appreciated how he hadn't tried to grill her during their meal about her son. "I'm willing to put money on this being a big secret, but I simply must ask: Harry Potter? Adopted or related?"

"Related," Lily said with a chuckle. "It's a long story, Filius, and one that doesn't start very happily. How about you join us for tea tonight and Shiva and I can explain?"

"Excellent. I shall bring the oolong then!"

"Since when did he like oolong? I could've sworn he was all over herbal teas a few weeks back…" Shiva wondered aloud as Flitwick moved off. Lily just shrugged in reply. Together the two stood and fell into step with McGonagall.

"Evening, Minerva," Lily said.

"Good evening, Lily." McGonagall raised her eyebrow at the redhead leaving Lily to smirk at the older woman.

"Something you wanted to ask, Min?"

McGonagall shut her eyes and groaned quietly at the flippant moniker. "I would say you know very well what I wish to ask, Lily. Considering that I am likely to obtain a portion of the answers once we get to Albus' office however, I am willing to wait." She narrowed her eyes at Lily briefly before snorting and turning back to the corridor. "You could have given me a warning you had a son attending this year. Or that you _had_ a son to begin with."

Shiva reached out to grab Lily's hand and squeezed hard. "Perhaps if you'd stood with us against 'Albus' after he tried to mindwipe my girlfriend we'd have deigned to bring you into the loop earlier," the Rune teacher said.

McGonagall was too poised to do anything like missing a step; however Lily caught the grimace and sorrow that flitted across her features and the soft hitch in her once-mentor's voice. "I have…apologized for that multiple times now. Albus has his faults, but I continue to maintain that he honestly believes he is trying to do his best."

"His best would've gotten our daughter killed," Shiva stated with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Minerva, I didn't mean to reopen old wounds. I'll drop it. We appreciate the backup here. I know you don't think it's necessary, but we do."

"I refuse to be alone with that man again," Lily said softly. She gripped Shiva's hand hard, clutching to her anchor and refusing to fall into her memories or her anger at Dumbledore. She wasn't fully able to prevent her narrowed eyes or drawn lips as she muttered, "More for his sake than mine."

McGonagall grimaced again and nodded. The trio pulled up in front of the gargoyle to the Headmaster's office and a quick password and escalator ride later, they were sitting down in the chairs at Dumbledore's desk with the man across from them.

"Good evening," Dumbledore said nodding to the witches. He steepled his fingers and frowned. "I will refrain from my normal offer as I rather doubt that either, you, Bathsheda, or you, Lily, would accept a sherbet lemon. In addition, there is no need to – what do the young call it these days? – beat the bushes?"

McGonagall shook her head. "Actually, Albus, the phrase is 'beating _around_ the bush'."

"Yes, that was it, thank you, Minerva. Lily, I know you approve of my methods, yet I urge you to trust me now. I must know about your…son." Dumbledore face was a mask of impassivity and the steel in his voice left no question as to how such a man could have once faced off against someone like Grindelwald.

"Oh so now you care about my family?" Lily asked her eyes narrowed to slits. "Never bothered to tell us about the bit of soul stuck in my daughter's head, but as soon as my son enters the scene you're all demanding of information?"

Dumbledore reared back as if he had been slapped. "What did you say?" His voice was soft enough that it was barely above a whisper and his eyes had widened to saucers.

"Soul," Lily spat. "Yes, my family figured out the secret of the Diary and what you tried to wipe from my mind. We're dealing with it in our own way and – "

Dumbledore's eyes widened even further and he leant forward almost falling over his desk as he shouted. "No! Lily, please you must trust me, there is a chance to help Aster, but you mustn't try to do anything to remove the – "

"Don't!" Lily spat cutting him off. She lifted from the seat and slammed her hands onto the desk scowling as she met him face to face only inches apart. "Don't you _dare_! Aster is my child! _Mine_! You knew about this for over a decade and did nothing you arrogant tosser! You consulted no one and you hang your hopes on a fantasy. My family is working to fix this without gambling with my daughter's life!"

"Lily!" McGonagall gasped, her hand covering her mouth. "Albus! What are you both implying? What is wrong with the girl? How can we help her?"

"Lily, sit down," Shiva stated. She laid a hand on Lily's arm and gently, yet firmly, pulled her back into her seat. Lily continued to glare at Dumbledore though she clamped her mouth shut and ground her teeth. "Headmaster, our family is aware of the remnant and we are working on a way to eliminate it. Your opinion on the matter is not currently wanted and that is not what we are here to discuss. Please drop it. Minerva, the same. Aster is not okay; she will be. We have it covered."

McGonagall didn't look happy at the dismissal, but after a few moments of consideration, she carefully nodded and surreptitiously wiped at the corner of her eye.

Dumbledore hung his head and ever so slowly, shifted to sit back down. His shoulders slumped and a moment later he looked all of his hundred-and-twenty-something years. "There are so few methods of removing a parasite like this and even fewer that would leave Aster alive and aware…I am sorry. I had hoped to spare you both from this knowledge until it was no longer a concern. I…I do not know if I can fully drop this matter, Bathsheda. It is something that may very well be tied into young Harry's existence as well depending on several potential factors. Not least of which is the Prophecy. Lily, I don't know if James ever told you why he had moved you both to Godric's Hollow and allowed for us to place the Fidelius on your home. There was a prophecy shortly before Aster was born. It stated she would be the one to destroy the Dark Lord. At least that was what I had thought…"

Lily took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her hands several times before trusting herself to reply. "James told me there was a prophecy, but he did not know the exact wording. Tell us and we will explain about my son – if it pertains to this supposed prophecy."

Dumbledore sighed, shutting his eyes. He stayed silent for long enough that Lily began to consider if she could simply get up and leave. Finally he whispered, "I heard it while interviewing a potential job applicant. Portions of it were overheard by a Death Eater and brought back to Voldemort. It was what set his sights onto your family and the Longbottoms."

Dumbledore paused again before continuing,

" _A child with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…_

 _born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…_

 _born into a world not their own and matured long before their time…_

 _and the Dark Lord will mark them as his equal, but they will have power the Dark Lord knows not…_

 _power gained from experience, power gained from failure, power gained from victory and loss and constraint…_

 _and one must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…_

 _one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..._ "

As he fell silent, Lily frowned. She ran over the wording again and snorted in amusement. It actually _could_ apply to Harry if one squinted and cocked their head to the side. "Thank you. Who overheard it?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "That is unimportant. Please…Harry?"

Lily scowled. Like hell it was 'unimportant'! Whoever the bastard was who'd tattled to Big Bad And Snakey, had placed a target onto her family. When she found out who it was…Lily's lips quirk upwards into a dangerous grin at the retribution she'd unleash on that poor unfortunate soul. A squeeze on her arm brought her back to the present and she focused back in on Dumbledore's last question. "This isn't over Dumbledore, but fine. Harry _is_ my son. When Aster was born she had a twin born a few minutes after her. There was an attack on Charlus' manor that same evening. The results of that night were part of why we agreed to move to Godric's Hollow and use a Fidelius. Some of the Death Eaters managed to get inside the wards. One stumbled into the nursery as the House Elves were cleaning up Harry and managed to kidnap him. By lucky chance Sirius was running back from the main fight at the gates and stumbled across the man. There was a chase onto the grounds. Sirius got off a last spell as the Death Eater apparated away. From what he saw, he'd thought the spell had struck Harry and assumed my child had died within only a few minutes of being born."

Shiva leaned forward and picked up the practiced narrative. "Lily and James were both obviously grief stricken and didn't want to let the Death Eaters know that they had struck a resounding blow considering where the war was at that point. They also didn't want Sirius blaming himself for Harry's death. So everyone present agreed to pretend that Aster was not only the eldest, but also an only child. We only learned a few weeks ago Sirius' spell hadn't killed _Harry_ , but the _Death Eater_."

"He's been raised by an old codger that despised magic, but knew Harry would need to blend in with the Muggles so the man taught self-taught him. Harry's knowledge is fairly advanced for his age because of that. While I'm gratefully that…man took Harry in, I despise him for being such a hermit that he never had enough contact with our world to realize who Harry was and that his family was still there for him!" Lily was rather proud of the sneer she affected with that statement. Granted channeling her earlier anger with Dumbledore made it easy to draw the ire necessary for it however it was still a good sneer all things considered.

McGonagall frowned as she leaned forward and cut in. "Why would Harry have not appeared in the Hogwarts' Roster then? All magical children in Britain are supposed to automatically appear and receive a letter."

Shiva shrugged. "Don't know, don't really care. Maybe the arse did get Harry's letter and just burned the thing."

"That…is possible I suppose," McGonagall allowed. "Though I find it hard to believe that Harry had no knowledge of who he was before this year."

"He'd barely been allowed outside and had almost no contact with anyone or anything beyond that bastard. I said he was raised. I did not say he was raised well or with love," Lily said her very real anger with her sister lending a deeper vibrating edge to her voice. "My son has been damaged, and now that he's home, we're helping him to heal."

"Did he…escape?" Dumbledore asked carefully.

"The old man died. From what Harry described, it sounded like a heart attack or stroke," Shiva said. "It was lucky in a way because he'd apparently gotten a paper that morning that had mentioned the Quidditch Cup events and Harry saw Lily and Aster on it. He thought they looked familiar and coupled with having their same surname sought us out for help. We figured out the story from there."

"Any further questions or am I free to go back to my children and make sure that Harry is settling in well?" Lily asked pointedly.

Dumbledore cast his eyes towards the desk in front of him and opened and closed his mouth several times before finally asking softly, "Lily, I know that we have not seen eye-to-eye in the past and I know that I can never fully make up for my mistakes. I ask this not because of our history, but because I am know your pain and I do care for you whatever you may think of me. Have you considered that Harry may be an imposter? Have you carefully questioned him to ensure that he is not an agent of the enemy intentionally – or unintentionally – playing a part? As you yourself just said, Sirius thought that the boy had died."

Lily almost laughed at that. If Dumbledore only knew the _real_ story! "We've verified him and his story. We've also reviewed Sirius' memories of that evening using Amelia's departmental Pensieve. The spell struck the Death Eater; Harry was untouched. If it makes you feel better, Headmaster, Amelia is still in the process of satisfying her own personal need for verification. While we have very different ideas on the majority of the Potter family matters, I think we can both agree that Amelia Black née Bones is far more thorough than you or I. If Harry is a secret Death Eater plant she'll find him out and I'll deal with him myself."

He nodded at that and finally seemed to shore his posture back up to something approaching the steel that he had started the meeting with. "Very well. Thank you for telling me as much as you have. I do not wish to keep you from your family any longer than is necessary. Minerva, do you have anything you wish to add or ascertain?"

McGonagall shook her head and turned to Lily and her partner smiling faintly. "Nothing in this setting, Albus. Lily, Shiva, perhaps I can join you and Filius for that tea later?"

"We'd be happy to have you, Min," Shiva said as she and Lily stood to leave.

They had just reached the door as Dumbledore called out one final parting message. "Lily, I know based on my actions, I am not one to speak of such things, but Harry being placed in Slytherin worries me. The influences around him there, coupled with his upbringing…"

Lily couldn't help it – this time she did laugh. "Dumbledore, it's not _Harry_ you should be worried about in that House. It's _everyone else_." She was still laughing as the door closed behind her.

* * *

Fic Recommendation: "Massacre in the Dungeons" by marylou. This fic has no actual pairings and turns quickly into an AU. Here the troll is _actually_ in the dungeons during the first Halloween and kills two Slytherins while badly injuring Draco. That prompts Lucius to turn against Voldemort and start hunting Horcruxes through the years while also setting in motion events to bring down Dumbledore and more dominos falling lead to Harry being adopted, Sirius shenanigans and – wonder of wonders – Snape having a polite relationship with Harry! It's good, complete and an interesting take on the Malfoy family as a whole.


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